


A City Formerly Known As Sadness

by storyquipster



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Found Family, Friends to Co-leaders to Lovers, Gen, Ignores Canon Harder Than Before, Jin is an Order of the White Lotus Member, LOTS AND LOTS OF WORLDBUILDING, Like really really slow, Multi, Order of the White Lotus, Secret Societies, Slow Burn, So this is VERY AU, The Mortifying Ordeal of Being Known, Worldbuilding, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, Zuko is touched starved, but tries not to show it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:00:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 78,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25043527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storyquipster/pseuds/storyquipster
Summary: Jin is tasked with welcoming and guiding two very important people into the city. What she thought would be another ordinary mission, turns out to be much, much more.(WhiteLotus! Jin AU)
Relationships: Jet & Jin, Jet & Zuko (Avatar), Jin & Jet & Zuko, Jin/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 172
Kudos: 174





	1. The Mission

**Author's Note:**

> So a lot of people have been messaging me in Fanfiction.net about why I deleted "Lotus" which was a fic about Jin being a member of the Order of the White Lotus. This is why. I'm re-writing the whole thing because I am unsatisfied with how the first one went and ended. I had wanted to just re-post the whole thing in fanfiction, but like a moron I locked myself out and am having trouble accessing my account. So in the meantime, I will be posting it here. I will be posting every Friday. The first seven chapters are done so you guys are assured of updates for at least six continuous weeks.
> 
> The genesis for this idea came years before, when my friend and I were talking about The Tales of Ba Sing Se. When the episode first came out on cable, there was a big hullabaloo about Jin being possibly a spy. In the course of our conversation, I asked: Why does Jin have to be a Dai Li spy? She could very well be a spy for OWL. And thus, the idea for this fic was born. As the tags indicate, this is VERY AU. You've all been warned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a lot of people have been messaging me in Fanfiction.net about why I deleted "Lotus" which was a fic about Jin being a member of the Order of the White Lotus. This is why. I'm re-writing the whole thing because I am unsatisfied with how the first one went and ended. I had wanted to just re-post the whole thing in fanfiction, but like a moron I locked myself out and am having trouble accessing my account. So in the meantime, I will be posting it here. I will be posting every Friday. The first seven chapters are done so you guys are assured of updates for at least six continuous weeks.
> 
> The genesis for this idea came years before, when my friend and I were talking about The Tales of Ba Sing Se. When the episode first came out on cable, there was a big hullabaloo about Jin being possibly a spy. In the course of our conversation, I asked: Why does Jin have to be a Dai Li spy? She could very well be a spy for OWL. And thus, the idea for this fic was born. As the tags indicate, this is VERY AU. You've all been warned.

“Finally! I thought you would never show up.”

Seeing in the mirror that Jin had come up behind him, Leung stopped fussing with the tie around his waist and beckoned for her to come closer. His eyes were still on the mirror, appraising his face as if it belonged to someone else. The long under-shirt of his hanfu was pulled high at the throat but his outer robe was still unfastened. He gave a pained, dry cough as he attempted to position the lapels. People always told him that he looked formidable for his age but lately, he had begun to feel all the force of his eighty years of existence.

“Relax, gramps. Getting illicit documents from a gang leader isn’t exactly a walk in the park,” Jin said, giving her grandfather a cheeky smile.

“Shh! Your mother’s downstairs and you know how she feels about you talking to Qiao. She already gave me an earful when she found out we were sending you out again. If she hears about this, I’ll never hear the end of it!”

Not that Leung disagreed with his daughter-in-law’s opinion on gangs. In fact, he wasn’t very fond of the Order’s propensity for engaging them but sometimes it couldn’t be helped. They had their contacts in the government and even in the Dai Li, but there were just some things that were better resolved by Ba Sing Se’s seedy underbelly. Creating forged documents was one of them.

“Well? Quit yammering and show me the documents,” he impatiently said.

Jin gave him a business-like nod and quickly began to pull out several papers from a leather satchel.

“Okay, so here’s the tickets, passports, birth certificates, residency certificates—oh, by the way, we found out that Sanchong was already destroyed so it wouldn’t make sense for them to be from there. We changed it to Taitung—‘’

“Yes, yes, that’s fine. What are all these marks?”

“Burn marks. So they wouldn’t look too clean. If they’re fleeing from the Fire Nation, it would make sense that some of the documents wouldn’t be intact right?”

“True…”

“It was my idea,” Jin proudly said. She pulled out another sheaf of papers tied together by a string. “And here’s their lease contract and the papers ready for filing with the Lower Ring Residential Bureau. I took the liberty of finding them a place to stay during my breaktime from the shop.”

“Good, good,” Leung said approvingly. Although he liked to complain that Jin was too easygoing, in reality, she possessed great initiative and completed tasks with a swift decisiveness that impressed even the most demanding of members.

“I even found them a job.”

“Really? Where?”

“At Pao’s Teashop.”

“Ugh.”

“Knock it off, gramps, Pao’s real nice.”

“Yes, a real nice idiot.”

“Gramps!”

“Couldn’t you have found them a job elsewhere?”

“Oh yes, of course, let me just discard this perfectly acceptable job I got for them and find a better one that’s just sure to be lying around in this overpopulated city.”

“Fine. Point taken. But if they fling themselves from a rooftop after one week of working for Pao, I’ll know who to blame.”

“Ha ha.”

“Well,” Leung said, suddenly feeling uncertain. “It seems like you took care of everything. Do you remember what you need to do?”

“Wear the dress with the lotus flower embroidery. Go to the Outer Wall, ask Ku from immigration to let me through to the docks and hitch a ride to get across Full Moon Bay. Once in the departure station, look for the old man and the guy in this picture. Give them the documents, guide them to the ferry and make sure that they get through immigration once they reach the Outer Wall. If there are issues, call Ku,” Jin carefully recited.

“Did you get tickets for Seiji’s boat?”

“I tried to but they were all out. Shame, though. It would be easier if we rode the ship that uncle works in.”

Leung sighed. “Well, it can’t be helped. Just make sure that you stay out of trouble.”

She took out a slip of paper from her sleeve and read it before looking up and asking, “Just to be sure…their names are Mushi and Lee, right?”

“Y-Yes.” Leung winced. He had almost slipped up right there. He was a naturally forthright person so lying to her took a concerted amount of effort.

“Who are these guys anyway? When I asked Huang where they came from he couldn’t give a straight answer.”

Leung looked at her carefully, wondering if he should tell her. Jin knowing that they were firebenders wasn’t a big deal. There was a small number of them in the city—a hundred years of conquest had led to several people of mixed blood coming in from the colonies. Around two were members of the Order and Jin was even great friends with them. But she had yet to come across someone who was actually from the Fire Nation. A firebender who was of mixed blood and from the colonies was more palatable; they dressed in green, spoke the language and knew all of the Earth Kingdom customs. When you talked to them, you didn’t even realize that they were firebenders at all.

On the one hand, he knew that she deserved to know the people she would be escorting into the city. On the other hand, he wasn’t sure if she was emotionally prepared to gracefully handle the revelation that she had gone through all that effort for the Dragon of the West and the Prince of the Fire Nation. It may have happened six years ago but the specter of the Siege still settled over their entire household like a fog. Even he wanted to kill Iroh when they first met—and he had a sworn duty to look beyond national and political divides.

“Oh, you know. Friends.” He hesitated for a moment. Finally, he settled on giving her a half-truth. “They’re firebenders.”

Jin raised her brows, looking a little put-out but not particularly surprised.

“You look like you already know.”

“I had some suspicions. They don’t look like they’re from the Earth Kingdom in their pictures. They’re all pale and their eyes are gold. Do you know them?”

“The old man, at least. I met him a few times, back when I still did missions outside the city. But that was ages ago.” He took the picture Jin was holding in her hand and studied it. “The boy on the other hand…I’ve been told that he’s not even an initiate yet. So keep any Order talk strictly to Mushi, understand?”

“Alright. Are they from the colonies?”

“Well…” Leung made a vague, airy gesture. Better for her to assume that they were from the colonies, he decided. He had no doubt that Jin was kind and had all the capacity in the world to be accepting. But he was also equally sure that she wasn’t at that stage yet. “They’ve never really had a proper home. They’ve just been wandering around for a long time.”

“Oh,” Jin said in a sad voice.

“Anyway,” he hastily said, trying to distract her. “Don’t forget about the code.”

“Yes, of course. The first stanza of the Li Bai poem.”

Leung placed his hands on her shoulders and looked at her. There was not a trace of her father in her—she didn’t inherit the sharp angles, hard planes and lean features that were so prominent in his family. She was all her mother, from her small frame to her tiny nose and round cheeks. But she had her father’s eyes, the very same eyes that used to look at him with unbridled mischief. The expression in her eyes was so uncanny, so like her father’s, that sometimes, all Jin had to do was look at him to make him forget that his son was dead.

“I better get going. Their boat is set to go in three hours,” Jin said. She made a move to leave but Leung held her there, still quite unwilling to let go. He had been like this during her last few missions. She had just turned sixteen this year and gone through her initiation rites. It would be a long time, decades even, before she would become a full-fledge member but for some reason, he felt as if the time was as close as tomorrow. It was silly to think this way. She hadn’t even been doing anything dangerous. Just processing papers and delivering messages—in fact, Jin once complained to him that she felt like an over-glorified fixer.

“Of course, of course. Be careful. Don’t—‘’

“Draw attention to myself, I know.”

“And whenever the Dai Li approaches—‘’

“Smile, nod and pretend like I don’t know anything.”

“You know how to defend yourself but—’’

“Don’t try to fight. Just disarm them and run.”

Jin put one of her hands over his and squeezed it. She gave him a re-assuring smile. “Gramps, don’t worry. I’m going to be fine. This is just a simple pick-up. I’ve done this countless of times. After today, I probably won’t even have to think about them anymore.”

“Yes, I know.”

She threw her arms around him and gave him a tight hug. Leung hugged her back, feeling the same squeezing sensation in his chest that persisted whenever he had to see her off on one of her missions.

“Bye, Gramps,” Jin said as she rushed out of his room.

When Leung heard Jin’s light footsteps clambering down the stairs, he moved towards the window and looked out. Outside, there was soft filter of sunlight that poured through the city from a cloudless sky. Jin bounded up in the courtyard, the golden lotus embroidery of her dress glinting against the sun. She paused and then seemingly realizing that he was watching, looked up and gave him one of her mischievous smiles. Then, she turned into a corner and in a flash, she was gone.


	2. A New Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Zuko and Iroh meet their new "friend."

“Where is she?” Zuko asked for the millionth time.

Iroh looked up from his teacup and gave his nephew a serene smile. They had just finished travelling across the rest of the desert into the secret ports of Full Moon Bay. He had assumed that their desert guide would also be the one to bring them into Ba Sing Se but he had sheepishly slipped Iroh a note and explained that someone else would be taking over. Someone who was from the city and knew its ins and outs better than he did. When asked if he minded waiting for a little while longer, Iroh assured him that it was no trouble at all. His nephew on the other hand, merely gave their poor guide an annoyed look.

“Oh, she’ll be here,” Iroh said. “The kind man who brought us here gave me a letter. My friends received our message and will be sending someone over.”

The letter was written in Leung Kar-Wai’s trademark utilitarian style. In less than half a page, he had managed to say that he was absolutely sorry that he couldn’t pick up Iroh and his nephew, that he sent his granddaughter in his stead and that they would still be able to meet because he was going to treat them to lunch the next day. His granddaughter, Jin, was young and was just an initiate, but she was a bold, forward girl, just the sort to help with getting through immigration and the checkpoints. They would find her of considerable use and if they ever needed anything, they were not to hesitate at all in asking her. Leung and Jin would do everything to make sure that Iroh and his nephew would be able to settle into the city comfortably.

“And how will we even know who this person is? Our guide never even bothered to tell us where to look for her!” Zuko complained. He had been anxious the entire trip to Full Moon Bay, always standing up and pacing the length of the port before sitting down.

Iroh at first thought that his nephew was afraid of getting caught, especially since they would be heading straight into the Earth Kingdom capital. But after careful reflection, he decided that Zuko’s fears were less about being caught and more about the fact that their entry into the city signaled the end of his Avatar-catching ambitions. They were going to have to make a new life there, whether his nephew liked it or not.

“Trust me, I’ll know,” Iroh said. The letter was very clear. Jin would be wearing a pale green dress with lotus embroidery. And in any case, she knew what they looked like. Even if they failed to find her, she would approach them eventually.

“Relax, nephew.” He placed a hand on Zuko’s shoulder. “There is no use worrying about anything until the moment has come to pass. Let us cross that bridge when we get there.”

Zuko didn’t shrug off his uncle’s hand but he did close his eyes and turn away. The two of them continued to wait in silence. Although it was still early in the morning, the docks had become crowded with people in a matter of minutes. There were travelers fresh from a long journey bargaining for tickets. In one corner, Customs was arresting someone who had attempted to smuggle a packet of opium in his undershirt. Men waiting for their turn were laughing over dice and drink, pipes and long sticks of tobacco in their hands. The air stank of sweet smoke and sour sweat. Combined with the overwhelming amount of green in the place, Iroh had to admit that the effect was more than a little nauseating.

Zuko suddenly tensed and Iroh followed his nephew’s line of vision to see what had gotten him into such a tizzy. Ah. It was their new guide.

She didn’t look anything like he expected—there was not a single trace of Leung in her, except perhaps, for the eyes. In fact, Iroh would not have taken her for Leung’s granddaughter if she had not waved at him and announced herself. Leung was tall, though rather lean and his features were long and angular. But the girl before him was petite, coming only a few inches taller than Iroh and the planes of her face were softer. When he gestured for her to come closer, she came briskly up to them, made a deep, formal bow and glanced at him with an expectant look.

Iroh quickly recited the code. “Going west to Mount Lian Hua, far away see bright stars—”

“Simple skill to grasp lotus flowers, they lightly tip-toe across the sky,” the girl finished.

His uncle broke into a wide smile and clasped her hands. “I take it you’re our new friend? How wonderful! I thought it would be Leung who was picking us up. If I had known a pretty girl was to be our guide into the city, me and my nephew would have freshened up more.”

She was indeed, exceedingly pretty. Her eyes were especially beautiful—they were in the famously, brilliant shade of green that was so prominent in the Kar-Wai family. He wondered if she was attached. Years of experience had told him that generally Zuko did not take well to any of his matchmaking attempts but it wouldn’t hurt to try.

Zuko rolled his eyes while the girl giggled.

“And you must be Mushi and…Lee?”

She faced his nephew, looking at him fully for the first time. Iroh braced himself for the look. The one everyone gave when they saw his scar. To his surprise, Jin didn’t even seem to acknowledge it. She merely gave Zuko a sweet smile before turning her attention back to Iroh.

“My name’s Jin. I’m actually Leung’s granddaughter,” she said. “Many apologies. My grandfather would have been the one to come here but he’s too old to make the journey.”

She was looking at him with a touch of awe, he noted. Probably her first time meeting anyone of his rank.

“Of course, it’s no problem at all. In fact, it’s good for us weary travelers, to have someone so lovely escort us into Ba Sing Se,” Iroh said.

“Have you been waiting long? I’m truly sorry, there was some trouble slipping through a checkpoint at the Outer Wall.” Jin started to lead them towards one of the gates, taking out slips of paper from her sleeve. “Let’s see…I’ve got your tickets and passports here…Mushi…and Lee?”

She turned to his nephew and gave him a disarming smile as she handed him his papers. Zuko blinked at her, looking rather suspicious. Iroh fought the urge to laugh. He wondered if his nephew ever grew tired of being mistrustful.

Jin suddenly paused.

“Are those…swords?” she asked, looking uncertainly at the broadswords Zuko had strapped to his back.

“Yes. Is there a problem?” Zuko responded defensively.

“Well…I’m not really sure they will get through customs…If I had known, I would have gotten you a permit but it’s a little too late to have one made right now.”

On seeing the disappointed look on Zuko’s face, Jin hastily amended, “But I’m going to try my best. I know how expensive they can be. It would be a shame to just discard them.”

They passed through customs where the officer stopped them and demanded to have the swords examined. Zuko stiffened but Jin swiftly placed herself between them and the officer. Putting on a very charming smile, she calmly explained that she was from the city and that she was helping out family friends. Her dear friend Lee—and at this, Zuko shot her an annoyed look—was someone who was engaged in the collection of decorative swords. The crabby officer’s expression softened at Jin’s sweet tone but he still demanded that he examine the sword and that they present a permit.

Those things were dangerous, he would want to make sure that they were vetted. Jin smiled at him and nodded. Of course, she knew how important it was to vet dangerous weapons but there was really nothing to worry about. They weren’t dangerous at all, they were purely decorative, in fact she doubted that they would even be able to cut through butter. By the end of their conversation, the officer was laughing at something Jin had said and he had already forgotten about Zuko’s swords.

When they walked away, Iroh and Jin exchanged the smallest of smiles. He liked this girl. For an initiate, she was smooth.

Iroh was also impressed by her efficiency. In the space of a few minutes, she had managed to bustle them into the ferry and find them a quiet spot in the lower deck, away from prying eyes. After spreading a mat for them to sit on, she was now taking out several papers from her leather satchel.

“I’m so sorry by the way, I tried to get you tickets to a sleeper class but they’ve run out. We’re gonna have to bunk it here in economy. I hope you don’t mind,” Jin said as she began to divide the papers into two neat piles.

“Of course we don’t mind at all! After weeks of traveling in the road, having a roof over our heads is enough of a blessing,” Iroh said.

“I’ve already taken the liberty of filling up the applications and forms for you. I’m just going to need you to sign them over here,” she said, as she slid the papers over to them.

As they signed the papers, Jin turned to his nephew and tried to engage him into conversation.

“I know you two must have been waiting for quite a while. I hope your wait was comfortable at least?”

Zuko merely grunted in response.

“The port can get crowded but the best thing about it is that they’ve put so much food carts and they’ve been lax about the gambling so that there would be some amusements. There are shops too, did you get a chance to look around?” Jin continued, seemingly unphased by his unresponsive behavior.

Iroh grinned to himself, impressed at how gracefully she was handling Zuko’s rude behavior.

“Not really,” his nephew said.

“Oh, maybe another time then. There was no trouble in your journey, I hope?” she asked.

Zuko bristled, as he always did when someone asked them a seemingly intrusive question. Iroh decided to spare the girl from further misery and spoke up before his nephew could say anything, “Just some trouble with a few people. You know how it is on the road. Not everyone we have met has been as willing to help as you.”

“Oh yes, even in the city as well! The Lower Ring has a never-ending supply of scoundrels. But I imagine bandits in the road are ten times worse than any Lower Ring mugger,” she chattered. With her light steps and uncanny ability to slink in and out of the crowd, she reminded Iroh distinctly of a cat. And as her grandfather had said, she was just a little “forward.” Even though she looked nothing like him, her speech was almost laughably like Leung’s. The glib flow suggested a too-knowing child.

“But I imagine you must be excited to start a new life here in Ba Sing Se after spending so much time on the road,” Jin continued.

“As if anyone would want to make a life here,” Zuko retorted. Iroh gave him a disapproving look while Jin shrank back, looking unsure of what to say.

Zuko suddenly stood up.

“I need some air,” he said before stalking off.

Iroh turned to her, ready to apologize but stopped when he saw the expression on Jin’s face. Although initially looking a little put-out, her expression softened to look of understanding.

“It’s okay,” she said sincerely. “I understand. That was a little insensitive of me. Starting over is not always a happy thing.”

Iroh smiled at her. Yes, he liked this girl a lot.

* * *

Lee was really…serious.

Borderline rude, too. Although she didn’t blame him. Her last comment was insensitive. She shouldn’t have made it, especially since she saw firsthand how difficult it was to be a refugee. She had been helping people get into the city for quite some time now and their reactions on being forced to flee to Ba Sing Se were varied. Some were happy, others were scared that something would go wrong again, but most were upset that they had to leave their home behind. Jin was familiar with the last one; both her parents were refugees and they hated having to stay in the city during their first few years in Ba Sing Se.

After her disastrous attempts at conversation with Lee, Jin had decided to just leave Mushi and his nephew to their own devices. Mushi was sweet and he talked with such charming nonchalance that Jin didn’t feel so self-conscious about talking to a Grand Lotus. She had worried beforehand, that she would fawn over him and make a fool of herself—she had never met anyone who held such a high rank in the Order before. Well, there was her grandfather but he didn’t really count.

She would have liked to talk to him some more and maybe hear about any stories he might have had about her grandfather but his nephew gave off the impression that he didn’t want her around. And for all her persistence, Jin knew when to back off.

Since then, she had been sitting in a corner, trying to observe them, all while pretending that she was absorbed in her book. Jin knew that her need to keep an eye on them was motivated by suspicion. It was wrong to be judgmental, she knew, but she was still leery around firebenders. Mushi was fine; if her grandfather called him a friend, then she had complete faith that he wasn’t some sort of crazed firebending psychopath. Lee, on the other hand, wasn’t even an initiate. For all intents, he was a complete stranger.

So far, nothing about him had struck her as especially peculiar though it was a little comical to see how he hated to make small talk. He hardly needed to pout—it wouldn’t kill him to smile every once and a while. The prominent veins along the bridge of his nose, just below the eyebrows, also suggested a quick temper. And there was something a little furtive about him (or was it just her imagination?), something a little brooding, even timid about the cast of his features.

“Ugh!”

At the sound of Lee’s voice, Jin looked up from her book.

He was talking to his uncle and waving the bowl around, a look of disgust on his face. From where she was seated, she couldn’t really make out what he was saying. She had just decided that it wasn’t any of her concern when a boy emerged from the shadows and approached Lee.

Uh-oh.

Jin recognized him. They had met before at the docks. He had approached her and attempted to chat her up while she was looking for Mushi and Lee. He was cute and under normal circumstances, Jin would have probably entertained his advances. But there was something about his countenance, something just a little bit dangerous, that made her wary. He reminded her vaguely of the boys in the Lower Ring who were trapped into becoming gang members. They weren’t particularly malicious but either because of the harsh circumstances of poverty or because of the gang’s steady influence, they ended up becoming real thugs who couldn’t be reasoned with.

“Hey!” she brightly said. The boy and Lee looked like they were in deep conversation. There were two other people she had never seen before standing close to them. She sidled up next to Mushi and tried to sound as casual as possible. “Making new friends already?

“Hey!” the boy said, immediately recognizing her. He made an affected lean and smiled at her. “Fancy seeing you in the same ferry. What are the odds, right?”

“You two know each other?” Mushi asked.

“Barely,” the boy smiled. “We met each other at the docks but I don’t think we’ve ever introduced ourselves. My name’s Jet.”

He gestured at a short boy with paint on his face. “This is Smellerbee.”

“And Longshot,” he said, putting a hand on the taller boy.

“They’re my Freedom Fighters,” Jet said, saying the words as if they would be something particularly impressive to her.

Jin tried to hide her frown. Freedom Fighters? There was a touch of romanticism in the name, she’ll grant him that. It sounded like something straight out of her favorite novels. But a name like that didn’t bode well in Ba Sing Se.

“Jin,” she replied, giving a bow.

“Nice meeting you, Jin.” He turned to look at Lee and raised a brow. “Lee, you never told me you had a girlfriend.”

Lee bristled and half-yelled, “She is—‘’

“Actually from the city,” Mushi smoothly interjected before Lee could finish his outburst and embarrass Jin. “She’s a friend who is helping us settle into our new life.”

“A true Ba Sing Se citizen, eh? The song wasn’t kidding then. The girls of Ba Sing Se really are the most beautiful.”

Jin gave him a wan smile. Oh, he was a slick one. But not very original. She’s heard that one before.

“So, what are you guys up to?” she asked. Smellerbee and Longshot had moved forward and were looking at her suspiciously. They stood protectively beside Jet, their stances almost aggressive.

“We’re going to get better food.”

“Better food? How?”

“You don’t need to concern yourself with that,” Jet said. The way he held the swords strapped to his back made Jin queasy. He gave her a small wink and patted her shoulder. “Just prepare your stomach for dinnertime.”

He gestured at Lee to come with him and they started to walk away. Jin paused for a moment and exchanged looks with Mushi before running after them. She lurched forward and grabbed Lee’s arm.

“Lee, wait!”

Lee and the rest of them stopped.

“Listen, I don’t know what you guys are planning on doing but it isn’t a good idea to stir up trouble,” Jin urgently said. “If you guys get caught—‘’

“We won’t,” Jet spoke up. “I’ve done more dangerous things than this. You don’t need to worry about us.”

“I know but…” she faltered, not really sure what to say. How to make them understand the gravity of what they were about to do? That as safe as Ba Sing Se was, it also had its dangers? She looked pleadingly at Lee, wishing she could somehow make him understand that Ba Sing Se had an obnoxious obsession with bureaucracy and rules and didn’t take kindly to rule-breakers.

They were far away from the Dai Li now, but there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t get involved. Lee’s papers were expertly forged but he didn’t even have time to study them and he was sure to stumble when they interview him. His obvious lack of knowledge was going to be suspicious and it might attract the attention of the Dai Li. And when the Dai Li was involved, there was no telling where you would end up. Most of the time, you just disappeared.

“I just don’t want you to attract unwanted attention,” she finally said.

Lee must have sensed that her anxiety was genuine because for the first time since they met, the grumpy expression on his face softened. He gently removed her hand from his arm and gave her what she supposed was his version of a re-assuring smile. She blinked at him, surprised. She had thought that he wasn’t capable of smiling. His expressions only seemed to alternate between angry and annoyed.

“Don’t worry. I promise to be careful,” he said. “Just stay with my uncle and wait for me to come back, okay?”

And with that, he turned around and left before she could say another word.

* * *

It turned out that she didn’t need to worry after all.

The boys had come back in the evening, bearing bags and containers full of roast duck, steamed dumplings, noodles, fish and rice. Jin thought it would be nice to eat by the deck, where the breeze was cool and where they had a view of the ocean, so she moved from their spot and spread the mat over there. As she carefully arranged the food, she observed Lee from the corner of her eyes. He looked pleased with himself. Huh. Who knew that all it took to loosen him up was a little law-breaking and thieving?

Jet had gone away and Jin’s impression of him improved when she found out that he had left to distribute the excess food to everyone else on the deck. He came back moments later with a bottle of baijiu. At Jin’s questioning look, he gave a small laugh and told her that one of the guards had given it to him in exchange for a little Soy Sauce Sea Bream. Apparently, even the employees of the ferry didn’t eat well.

As soon as she did the finishing touches on the food, they began to eat. Lee and Jet’s friends were the quiet type but between her, Jet and Mushi, the conversation was a lively one. Jet was a good talker. Usually, there was a certain stiffness and restraint among people so recently introduced but Jet was so completely at ease that the conversation flowed smoothly. He was also a good drinker. He was in complete control of himself despite having drunk several cups of baijiu—he only became wittier as he drank. Jin was a good adversary and the two of them happily bantered back and forth. The entertainment was so good, so professional, that everyone quite forgot their weariness.

Lee was a good drinker too. It wasn’t as obvious because he was so silent but Jin noticed that he could always be persuaded to have another cup and the only indication he gave that he had drunk any alcohol was the slight flush on his cheeks.

At some point, Mushi noted that Smellerbee was an unusual name for a young man to which Smellerbee angrily retorted that she was a girl. Jin had barely gotten over her shock at this particular revelation when Smellerbee stood up and stomped off, with Longshot trailing after her.

“Don’t worry too much. Common mistake. She’ll get over it,” Jet said upon seeing Mushi’s contrite look. He grabbed a dumpling with his chopsticks and popped it into his mouth.

Jin took advantage of the lull in the conversation to say what she had been meaning to say the whole evening.

“Hey,” she said, meeting Jet’s eyes and then, Lee’s. “Thanks for getting us the food. Sorry I got worked up about it earlier.”

“It’s no problem. Told you, you didn’t need to worry,” Jet smiled. He gave a long, languid stretch and smiled placidly. “From what I’ve heard, people eat like this every night in Ba Sing Se.”

Jin immediately felt something pang in her chest. There was something about Jet’s naïve tone that pained her. Beneath his slick manner, he struck her as someone who was hardened, someone who had seen and experienced the worst the world had to offer. It was jarring to see his face light up with such genuine, childlike excitement. He had the look in his eyes that all refugees held—the look of hope that they would finally leave behind the brokenness of the outside world to live out the rest of their lives peacefully. That look would fade away, as it always did, the longer they stayed in Ba Sing Se.

“What’s wrong?” Lee suddenly said.

It took her a while before she realized that he was addressing her. He never spoke, interjecting only when directly asked so she assumed that he wasn’t following the conversation. Jin looked at him and Lee flushed when she gave him a small, knowing smile. Whether it was from the alcohol or embarrassment over having been caught observing her, Jin couldn’t tell.

“O-Oh, it’s nothing,” she said. “It’s just that…you could certainly eat there more than when you’re on the road. But you should probably be more realistic. Like most cities, it has its flaws.”

“Still, I can’t wait to set my eyes on those giant walls,” Jet said. “I heard that they’re so high that some birds can’t even fly to the top.”

“It is a magnificent sight,” Mushi said.

Jin tried to hide her surprise. She didn’t know that he had been to the city before. She wondered why he didn’t stay. Everyone who went to Ba Sing Se usually had no plans of leaving.

“So you’ve been there before?” Jet asked.

“Once.” Mushi suddenly looked wistful. “When I was a different man.”

Jet hung his head, a serious look on his face. “I’ve done some things in my past that I’m not proud of. But that’s why I’m going to Ba Sing Se. To start a new beginning, a second chance.”

“That’s very noble of you,” Jin said, placing a hand over Jet’s. For the first time since they met, he sounded sincere. He was charming and sweet but there was always an undercurrent of superficiality in the practiced way he smiled or spoke to her. But now, she sensed none of that. He was so honest and open that Jin forgot all about her initial wariness and immediately considered him as someone she wanted to befriend.

“Yes, I agree. I believe people can change their lives if they want to. I believe in second chances,” Mushi said, exchanging a meaningful look with Lee.

Smellerbee and Longshot eventually came back and they continued to talk until the guard sounded the bell, saying that they were going to be putting out the lights. Jet and his friends were staying at another part of the deck so they bid goodbye, promising that they would be back before dawn to eat breakfast together. Jin fussed about with her mat and pillows. She felt a little lightheaded and the shapes on the boat started to get wishy-washy. Ugh. She was probably going to wake up with a hangover. She only drank two cups but she had always been a bad drinker. And it didn't help that she was on a boat; she had never really been good on water and tended to get seasick easily. 

Lee was shuffling about in his place, looking awkward and it took a while before Jin realized that it was because she was going to be sleeping next to him. She almost wanted to laugh. The deck was so crowded with people that even if she slept somewhere else, he would still probably end up sleeping next to a girl. She wondered what he thought about her readiness to sleep in such close quarters with a man she wasn’t married to. Her grandfather was very old-fashioned and instilled in Jin a rigid sense of propriety but that flew out the window the moment she started helping people into these ferry trips. There was no more time to think about what was proper when there was hardly any space.

“Relax. I won’t do anything to you,” Jin said.

“I know!” Lee blurted out. “It’s just that…it’s not exactly appropriate to…to you know—”

“Sleep with a girl?” Jin asked, knowing full well the double meaning behind her words. He was just so uptight that she couldn’t help teasing him a little.

“What? No…I…I….didn’t mean it that way—‘’

“I could sleep next to Mushi, if it bothers you so much,” Jin said, adopting an innocent tone. She exchanged a look with Mushi who was trying to suppress his laughter.

“No! I mean it doesn’t bother me—‘’

“Are you sure? You know I’m only teasing, right? I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable.” This time she was sincere. She sensed that that he wasn’t used to being teased good-naturedly.

“I said it’s not a big deal. I will sleep with you if you want, I’ll sleep right there.” At this, Lee’s face turned even redder.

“Well, there is more room here than in Mushi’s side…”

“Then fine, if you don’t mind…”

“No, it’s up to you—‘’

“I know it’s up to me, I’m making the choice. I’m coming in to sleep with you,” he snapped.

“Okay,” Jin shrugged.

Without waiting for him to say anything more, she laid down on her mat and looked at the stars, a small grin on her face. From beside her, she could feel Lee shuffling about with his own things. She felt something cool in her elbow and she turned to the side and saw that Lee had placed his swords between them, probably as some sort of barrier.

“Right. So….I guess I’m just going to…you know…” He made a vague gesture with his hands and when it was clear that he couldn’t actually get the words out, he sighed and gave a small bow. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to lie down.”

This time, Jin couldn’t restrain her laughter. So formal.

“Go on,” Jin said.

He laid down but he held himself very still, careful not to even let his elbows brush against hers. Jin had mercy on him and decided to spare him from any further awkwardness by turning to the opposite side. She wiggled a bit in her place, feeling discomfited. The one thing she hated about sleeping in such a crowded space was that she couldn’t change out of her dress and wear more comfortable clothing. Earth Kingdom clothing tended to be heavy, to provide ample protection from the never-ending spring, so between the layer of clothes she was wearing and the press of bodies, she was feeling a little hot.

Jin pulled the quilt all the way up to her chin. She glanced around to see if everyone else was occupied. Under normal circumstances, she would never have attempted this but Lee was proving to be such a gentleman that she had no doubt that he would keep his hands to himself. When she was sure that nobody was looking, she slowly loosened the top part of her dress and began to unfasten her dudou from underneath her quilt. At the very least, she wanted to loosen her breast bindings. They could be quite uncomfortable when she slept.

“Good night Lee. Good night Mushi.”

“Goodnight Jin,” Mushi replied. As was typical of him, Lee merely made a gruff sound.

The breeze was warm and the stars were all in place but it was hard to count them down because the water and the sky were pitch black. Jin fixed her gaze at a point in the distance, where the lights of another ferry were shining from the darkness. There were noises everywhere—babies crying, whispered conversations, coughs and sneezes—but the steady rhythm of the waves rocked Jin to sleep.

Jin dreamt of her father, as she always did. She dreamt she was in the Firelight Fountain with him, craning at the adorable little fishes who flittered near the surface at the sight of bread. She had just felt her father’s arm on her shoulder when she was jolted awake by the sound of rustling. Blinking the sleep away from her eyes, she sat up and blearily looked around. Mushi was anxiously pacing back and forth and stroking his beard.

“Is everything okay?” she whispered.

Before he could reply, there was a noise overhead. Jin squinted her eyes and saw a large shape move across the sky. In the darkness, it was hard to tell what it was but she swore that it almost looked like a…bison.

The Avatar! The Avatar was close by. It must be him. Stories of the outside world were difficult to come by but even she had heard the tales of the Avatar waking up and returning. Ever since she was a little girl, Jin had always entertained fantasies of meeting him. She stood up and craned her neck, desperate to get a better look. She excitedly turned to Mushi, ready to tell him that the Avatar was close when he reached forward and grabbed her wrist.

Jin gave him a questioning look and in response he shook his head.

“Uncle…Jin…what are you two looking at? Is there something out there?” Lee suddenly spoke up.

Jin and Mushi exchanged looks. Mushi shook his head again.

“Um…nothing,” Jin said, still confused. She wondered why Mushi didn’t want her to tell Lee that the Avatar was close by. Everyone wanted to meet him and she figured Lee and Mushi wouldn’t be any different.

Jin sat back down and looked at Mushi. She had never met anyone before who looked so unhappy at the prospect of meeting the Avatar before.

How strange.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a small note about the family name I chose for Jin's family. Yes, "Kar-Wai" is an ode to the esteemed filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai and yes, I am aware that it's actually his given name. I know that the convention for naming in Chinese is usually Last Name-First Name, with the first name being the one with two syllables. However, I noticed in the Avatar universe at least that last names in the Earth Kingdom tended to be two syllables so I decided to keep that convention.
> 
> Thank you for reading. Comments are greatly appreciated!


	3. Not Like Most Cities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jin and Jet have a talk and Iroh and Zuko go sightseeing.

After much haggling with customs, Jin finally managed to get Lee’s swords approved.

Customs in the Outer Wall was ten times stricter than that of the docks, probably because it was the city’s last chance at vetting unscrupulous individuals and confiscating contraband and illegal goods. There was a lot of fussing and apologetic bowing before the customs officer finally allowed Lee’s swords to go through without a permit.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she went to the next step which was processing them with Refugee Placement. When they docked, she and Mushi had agreed that it was best that they split up. Mushi and Lee would go to Immigration to be interviewed while Jin handled customs and well, everything else.

She just hoped that they wouldn’t mind waiting a little while longer. In addition to the fact that the Refugee Placement Center took a soul-crushingly long time with processing the papers, she was also helping Jet and his friends. Ba Sing Se’s bureaucracy could be a quagmire and if you didn’t have experience navigating it, you could be stuck at the Outer Wall the whole day. What didn’t help was the fact that Jet and his friends’ papers were poorly forged. Like most refugees, they had to pay someone at the docks to hastily cobble together the necessary documentation. As a matter of policy, Immigration would have to let them through, but not before ordering them to go from office to office, procuring supporting document after document.

Her grandfather would probably kill her if he found out. He didn’t like it when she indulged in little side missions—it made her all the more susceptible to unwanted attention. But she just couldn’t help herself. It didn’t feel right to do nothing when she was in a position to help.

And anyway, as annoying as the Refugee Placement Center was, Jin couldn’t help but regard it with a certain fondness. During better times, her father had worked there as a clerk for several years. The pay was terrible and the labor dull; all her father really had to do was read through hundreds of applications and randomly assign people to Refugee Shelters. But her father insisted that his work was vital to the war effort. He was very critical of Ba Sing Se’s Isolationist Policy and having been driven out of his hometown by Fire Nation forces, it was his deepest desire to contribute to the war, in any way he could.

After two hours of being squeezed between strangers and dealing with grumpy officials, Jin wearily emerged into the waiting area. She had tried her best but the official told her that since Jet and his friend’s documents were “a little suspect,” he was going to need some more time to examine them. At least she managed to wrangle out a room for them in the Shelter. She had come across an old workmate of her father and he had pulled some strings to move Jet and his friends up the waiting list.

Jin was just about to get some water to cool herself when she suddenly saw Jet barreling towards her. She waved and cheerily said, “Oh, there you are! I’ve just finished but you guys are going to have to wait for a few more hours—‘’

Before she could finish, Jet grabbed her elbow and pulled her away into a deserted corner.

“Hey! Slow down. What’s gotten into you?”

“Listen, I need to talk to you,” Jet urgently said.

“If this about your papers, I already told you, you don’t have to worry. A lot of people here have forged papers. It can't be helped—‘’

“Forget about the papers! We’ve got bigger problems,” Jet hissed. As she looked at him, she noticed for the first time that his face was pale with worry.

“What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Worse. _Firebenders_.”

Jin tried to control the alarmed expression on her face. How did he know? What had Mushi and Lee done to expose themselves? Ba Sing Se's strict enforcement of the War Denial Policy meant that the people were trained and conditioned to not react violently or give any special meaning to firebenders—after all, if there was no War in Ba Sing Se, then having firebenders around would pose no danger. Still, they were in the Outer Wall which was filled with angry refugees who still hadn't been properly apprised of what the Dai Li deemed an "acceptable reaction" to firebenders. No, Mushi and Lee wouldn’t be so careless in a room full of Earth Kingdomers, ready to lynch them at a moment’s notice. Jet must be talking about other people. _He must be._

Jet must have mistaken the expression on her face for fear because he placed his hands on her shoulders and gave them a re-assuring squeeze. “I don’t want to scare you but it’s Lee and Mushi.”

A chill swept up Jin’s spine. So he was talking about Lee and Mushi. Did other people know? She discreetly began to look around, trying to see if anyone else had caught on.

“W-What? What are you talking about?”

“Lee and his uncle. They’re firebenders.”

Making a tremendous effort to calm herself, Jin took a deep breath and steadily asked, “How do you know?”

“I saw Lee’s uncle firebending his tea.”

Firebending in plain sight? What the hell was Mushi thinking? For a Grand Lotus, he didn’t show a lot of foresight.

“You saw him?”

At this, Jet hesitated. “Well…no. But his tea was cold and then the next thing I knew, it had become piping hot."

Okay, this was good. He didn’t really see anything. They could still claim plausible deniability.

“So you _didn’t_ see him firebend?”

“No, but there could be no other explanation of how he was able to heat his tea so quickly.”

“Jet...maybe the boredom from waiting was just getting to you—‘’

“No, that isn’t it. He’s firebender. I know it. You have to believe me,” Jet desperately said. “Listen, you have to get away from them. You seem like a nice girl and I don’t want you mixing up with _their_ sort. They could be dangerous. We don’t who they are. They could be Fire Nation spies seeking to gain intelligence for the War—‘’

“ _Shh_! Lower you voice!” Jin hissed.

This was bad. This was very, very bad. Not just for Lee and Mushi but also for Jet. Nobody spoke about the War, not unless they wanted to disappear forever.

“What—‘’

“Shh! I said lower your voice. Don’t speak so loudly.”

She craned her neck and looked over his shoulder, trying to discern if they had drawn anyone’s attention. So far, nobody seemed to be paying them any mind, but they couldn’t be too careful. In Ba Sing Se, even the walls had ears.

“You must never, _ever_ speak loudly about the War when you’re inside Ba Sing Se. _Never_.”

Jet gave her an incredulous look. “Why?”

“Ba Sing Se…is not like most cities. After the Siege, Long Feng, the Grand Secretariat issued an edict. The War Denial Policy—‘’

“War _Denial_?”

“Yes. All talk of the War is absolutely forbidden.”

“They’re….they’re hiding the War? In Ba Sing Se? _How_?”

“Not here,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s hard to explain. I can tell you more once we’re in a more private place.”

“But we can’t just let these spies stand here and—‘’

“Jet, please. Please stop. Promise me you won’t make a fuss about this. The Dai Li could get involved. You could endanger Smellerbee and Longshot,” Jin said. She felt as though her head was flooding with blood. Her own father was a victim of the Dai Li, one of those who disappeared and despite her initial wariness, Jin now considered Jet a friend and didn’t want him to get caught.

“Still, we have to give this information to someone. We could tell the police or—‘’

“Jet, stop.” She tried a different tack. “Maybe….maybe you didn’t really see what you thought you saw. An old man heating his tea is hardly proof that he’s a firebender—‘’

“Then explain how he heated it so quickly.”

“Maybe he got someone else to heat it for him while you weren’t looking.‘’

“Impossible. The tea-seller was already paces away when he heated his tea.‘’

“Well, even if he is a firebender, there is no guarantee that they’re spies. They could be of mixed blood. With all the colonies, bloodlines are getting mixed everywhere—‘’

“Why are you making so many excuses for them?”

Jin blinked at him, stunned at the way his eyes suddenly glowed with harsh suspicion. He drew closer, crowding in her space and Jin had to use all of her self-control to stop herself from taking a step back.

“How did you and Lee meet again?” he asked.

“We met at the docks. Same as you and me,” Jin said, in a calm tone that belied the frantic beat of her heart. She now understood why Jet was looking at her with such unbridled animosity. He must have correctly assumed that she was covering for them. She quickly attempted to cycle through several excuses. It wouldn’t do for Jet to get the impression that she was colluding with Lee and Mushi. Informants could be just as dangerous as Dai Li Agents and she didn’t want Jet to bring her or her family to the Dai Li’s attention.

“The old man said you were a friend.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed but Mushi considers _everyone_ his friend. I was in the docks doing some work for my grandfather and they saw me. They seemed pretty hopeless with everything so I decided to help them. Since I was going back to the city anyway, we decided to just travel together.”

Jet relaxed at this, seemingly satisfied with her explanation although Jin noted that he was still regarding her warily.

“Jin!”

Hearing her name, Jin turned and saw Lee waving at her from the waiting area. On seeing that she was talking with Jet, his eyes immediately narrowed in suspicion. He pushed his way through the crowd and came up beside her. “There you are! Uncle and I have been looking everywhere for you.”

“Lee,” Jet acknowledged.

“Jet.” Lee’s tone was even but there was no mistaking the hostile look on his face. Lee had already become friendly with Jet so she wondered what had happened to suddenly make him become so suspicious. Did Jet confront Lee as well?

Lee glanced at Jin, before focusing his attention back to Jet. “Is there a problem?”

Jet gave Lee a very fake smile and smoothly said, “No. No problem at all. I was just thanking Jin for all her help.”

Lee gruffly nodded before exchanging a look with her. “Are you all done? We just got our passports stamped by Immigration.”

“Yeah, I’m done.” She turned to Jet and handed him a slip of paper. “I got you guys a room at the Refugee Shelter. The details are all here.”

Lee lightly tugged at Jin’s arm and said, “We should get going.”

“See you guys around,” Jet said. He waved the paper Jin had given him. “Don’t be a stranger. You know where to find us.”

“Right.”

Lee started to walk away but Jin hesitated, not wanting to be as dismissive as him. She paused and placed a hand over Jet’s shoulder. In response to his questioning look, she pleadingly said, “Just…don’t forget about what I said okay?”

Jet merely smiled at her and didn’t answer.

* * *

The trains here were ridiculously primitive.

The structure seemed strong enough but the fact that it was propelled by earthbenders guaranteed that it would not be a smooth journey. It jostled after every few minutes and moved rather slowly—nothing like the powerful metal machines of Zuko’s home country. He wondered at how anyone could ride these things; three minutes in and already his backside was feeling more sore than it had been when he was learning how to first ride a Komodo-rhino. Everyone else around him seemed impressed though. They were looking at the train with unabashed awe and a row down, he could hear a couple marveling at its ingenuity.

Zuko snorted. How little it took to impress them! If they were satisfied with something this crude, then it was no wonder why the Earth Kingdom was so provincial and backwards.

Jin, like everyone else, didn’t seem to mind the jostling. She was sitting next to his uncle and the two of them were cooing, pulling faces and generally making fools of themselves at the small baby of the couple sitting beside them.

“What a handsome baby!” his uncle crooned.

“What’s her name?” Jin asked.

“Hope,” the woman replied.

“It’s such a lovely name!” Jin gushed, sounding as if she genuinely meant it. She and uncle were alike that way. When they talked to you and asked you things, they weren’t just making meaningless small talk—they listened to every word with undisguised sincerity.

“Thank you.” The woman held the baby out, gesturing at them to touch it. A look of delight spread across Jin’s face and she leaned forward, gently stroking its cheek and asking it questions in an exaggerated voice. His uncle also moved closer and made more funny faces at it. Jin looked up and when she saw that he was looking at her, she held his gaze and gave him a sunny smile. Slowly, she lifted the baby’s right hand and moved it in the gesture of a tiny wave.

“Say hi to Lee Ge, Hope,” Jin sweetly said, using the Earth Kingdom honorific for “big brother.”*

Baby Hope happily gurgled at him. Zuko blinked at her, unsure of what to do or say. Finally, he settled on giving a gruff nod before turning away. As usual, Jin was unruffled by his brusque manner and merely gave him a serene smile before focusing her attention back to the baby. That was another thing Jin had in common with her uncle. They were obnoxiously cheerful, no matter the circumstances. When he first met her, it was difficult not to regard her with some degree of suspicion. No one could be that happy all the time unless they were hiding something.

“Lee.” Jin’s voice pulled him from his thoughts. She tugged at his sleeve in excitement and sat on her knees as she looked out the window.

“Look! We’re finally in the city!” she enthusiastically said.

Zuko followed her gaze and tried to suppress a sneer. There was nothing remarkable about the city at all. The buildings were all square and blocky and in the dull, typical Earth Kingdom colors of green and brown. There were three big walls that were arranged in concentric circles. The one at the very center contained a rectangular expanse, capped off with what looked like a grand and sprawling structure. Jin told him that the entire complex was the Earth King’s palace which was ominously named "The Forbidden City." The sheer size of Ba Sing Se was impressive, he had to admit, but in the final analysis, it was no match for the Caldera.

Jin beamed at him, eager to see his reaction. She was looking at him with such open excitement that Zuko suddenly couldn’t bring himself to show his disappointment. From the brief conversations they had, he gathered that she loved the city and would no doubt be upset to find that he was less than impressed by it. And somehow, it didn’t feel right to see Jin as anything other than radiant and happy.

“It’s nice,” he lamely offered.

“Truly, a magnificent city!” his uncle praised in a more sincere tone. “In all our travels, I have never seen such a sight.”

The train finally stopped and they all trooped out, with Jin leading them like an over-excited puppy-bear. She and Uncle Iroh waved goodbye at the couple with the baby and made their way over to a row of rickshaws.

Jin hired a rickshaw to take them to a restaurant in the thirteenth district, wherever that was. She told them that her grandfather wanted to treat them to lunch before she showed them to their new homes. As the rickshaw sped along the streets, Jin chattered endlessly about one thing or the other. Ba Sing Se had three rings, which were subdivided according to your profession and status. They would be staying in the Lower Ring—there was no helping it, all newcomers, whether they were penniless or rich had to stay there until they could be given clearance to move into the Middle and Upper Rings. Movement between rings was strict but generally, you could go back and forth as long as you had all the right papers.

Whenever they passed somewhere significant, Jin would point it out and give a brief explanation of its history. Zuko noticed that the more impressive buildings in the Lower Ring were government structures: the Diet Building, the Lower Ring Residential Bureau, the Ministry of Refugee Affairs. There was one magnificent structure that looked more like a tiny mansion than a government building—it had a tiled roof, high walls and was lined with poplars and oleander trees. Jin explained that it was the Imperial Hotel. With a snort, she said that it was where the Earth King was supposed to stay if he cared to visit the Lower Ring. Since he never left the palace—and at this, Zuko gave her a startled look. What kind of King didn’t visit his own kingdom?—the only people who went there were Upper Ring bigwigs who would go “slumming” in the Lower Ring.

The rickshaw moved through a tiny road that passed by a rectangular, open space surrounded by timber structures. Jin explained that it was the theater and that if they wanted, she could get them tickets and they could all see a play or show together sometime. The plays weren’t as elaborate as those in the Upper or Middle Rings, but she thought that the actors were just as good. At this, Zuko softened. He liked theater and although he had no doubt that Earth Kingdom shows would be unsophisticated, the idea of seeing a play was a beacon of happiness in this miserable city.

His uncle asked Jin if there were any good teashops around and Jin enthusiastically rattled off several names. There was a teashop in the Upper Ring, the Tao Tao Ju Teahouse, that claimed to be the best but it was horribly overpriced. In Jin’s opinion, the best tea could be found in Ah Mei Teahouse which was located at an annex in the University. His uncle dampened when Jin told him that he probably could not visit the Middle Ring anytime soon but he shouldn’t worry because she had heard that he was an exceptional teamaker—that was precisely why she got them a job at a teashop. His uncle bowed and feigned embarrassment but Zuko could tell that he was actually pleased.

In truth, Zuko was only half-listening. He was too busy looking at the squalor the Lower Ring citizens lived in. Beggars and hollowed-eyed children lined the streets, all holding their hands out for a bit of coin. A number of shady characters carrying weapons lurked about in the alleyway and once or twice, he would see a street urchin pilfer coin purses from unsuspecting people. The houses and buildings were crammed so close together that one only needed to reach out from his window to touch the wall of another building—in fact, it seemed as though each structure was making an appeal for its neighbor to move over. This, combined with the overwhelming amount of people milling about, made the place feel a bit claustrophobic.

Jin must have noticed the look on his face because she started to say, a touch defensively, that while the Lower Ring could be “rough” not all parts were bad. The Chiayi District was particularly lovely because all the buildings were new. There had been a great earthquake a few years back and since that area was the most badly hit, the entire place was flattened and replaced with new, sturdier buildings that were designed by the city’s best architects. There was also the Jiufen District, where they were going to be eating. It was home to a lot of quaint restaurants and because it was the closest area to the Middle Ring, it was also cleaner and less chaotic. And then, there was of course the Firelight Fountain which, in her opinion, was the most beautiful place in the whole of Ba Sing Se.

They turned a corner and the rickshaw pulled into a quiet street that branched out into narrow, alleyways that were built into an elevated, hill-like structure filled with food stalls, tea houses and pottery stores. The people in the area were cleaner and better-dressed. There was still the occasional street urchin or thug who darted along the road, but generally, the populace seemed to be the more respectable sort.

To their right loomed the Middle Ring Wall. Zuko looked up and despite himself, he couldn’t help but admire its sheer size. He could barely see its very top and although there were several long buildings built into its side, the wall dwarfed them so much that they looked like more caterpillars clinging along the underside of a tree branch.

The rickshaw stopped before an alleyway that rose into a flight of stairs leading to one of the buildings built into the Wall. As they clambered down, Zuko noticed Jin paying the driver thirty copper pieces. Immediately, he felt a flood of shame rush through him. Thirty coppers was already a lot of money and his princely pride longed to snatch the coins from Jin’s hands and pay the driver himself. But he and uncle were literally penniless; all they had to their name was a few copper pieces, barely enough to get them a small bowl of rice.

They climbed the flight of stairs, with his uncle pausing every now and then to examine the carts that lined its sides. Jin indulged in these diversions and happily gave her opinion on this trinket or that. Zuko could only fold his arms and rolls his eyes. Honestly, sometimes it felt impossible to be seen with them.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of useless window shopping, they made it to the building. It turned out to be a restaurant called “Xin Rong Ji.” The three of them slipped inside and waited at a balcony while the host entertained another customer. The balcony overlooked the Lower Ring and because they were up so high, the buildings and houses looked nothing more than tiny squares.

“I can’t wait for you to meet grandfather again! He will be so excited to see you,” Jin enthusiastically said.

“I’m excited to see him too,” Uncle Iroh replied. “It’s been many years since I have last seen Commander Kar-Wai.”

“Commander?” Zuko uneasily said. It didn’t bode well to have lunch with someone who once fought against the Fire Nation.

“Your deference is too much, Mushi. Grandfather is retired,” Jin said, bowing her head. Earth Kingdom propriety dictated that Jin had to be self-effacing, lest she be accused of bragging or arrogantly touting her family’s accomplishments.** But Zuko could tell from the expression in her eyes that she was actually pleased.

“And you speak too humbly of your grandfather, young lady.” His uncle said it in a seemingly reproachful tone but from the smile on his face, Zuko knew that Uncle Iroh was merely playing along. “Your grandfather was one of the most courageous and accomplished officers in the Earth Kingdom Army. Who could forget his brilliant strategy in the Battle of the Red Cliffs?”

“Battle of Red Cliffs?” Zuko murmured. The name sounded vaguely familiar.

“Much credit must also be given to the esteemed General Ahn Hyun. My grandfather was but a humble officer serving under him during that battle,” Jin said. Her head was bowed in obeisance but even so, Zuko could hear the pride in her voice.

The host eventually finished talking with the other customer and after Jin briefly spoke to him, he immediately led them to a hallway lined with rooms. He stopped at one, slid open the paneled door and led them inside.

There were already three people in the room and by the way they greeted Jin warmly, Zuko could tell that they were her family. They were all squatting around a round, carved padauk table. The one in the middle was a tall old man who Zuko assumed to be Jin’s grandfather. He didn’t look much like her—he had a very stern face with high cheekbones, a sharp chin obscured by a long beard and lips which drooped slightly at the corners. He was wearing a green _xiao guan_ hat and his long white hair was tied in the typical Ba Sing Se style of a queue.

Beside him was a woman with fine skin and dark, exuberant hair which was kept in a neat bun. She was several steps shorter than the old man who in his heavy _hanfu_ , made the woman look particularly tiny and bird-like. She looked astonishingly like Jin, except perhaps, for the eyes which although large, were in a darker shade of green. Were it not for the grey streaks in her hair, she could easily be mistaken for Jin’s sister.

He was taken aback to see that she was wearing a black _Pien Fu_. The Earth Kingdom wore black as the color of mourning*** and as such, it was considered taboo to wear it outside of funerals. He wondered why she was wearing it. Had someone in their family died recently? Uneasily, he noted that there didn’t seem to be a father in sight.

Beside her was a tiny boy, about five or six years old. He was as round-cheeked as Jin and the woman and he had the same lively and mischievous expression in his eyes that Jin frequently wore.

“Lee, Mushi, my grandfather, Leung Kar-Wai,” Jin introduced, gesturing at the tall old man.

Zuko looked at him carefully. He had a strong posture and a powerful presence so it was not difficult for Zuko to imagine that once upon a time, he had been a fierce warrior in the war. But how did he end up here, as a nobody in this squalid city?

And more importantly, what the hell was uncle doing with these people? The revelation that Jin’s grandfather served in the army worried him. Pai Sho buddies or not, it was a terrible idea to be mingling with someone who had once been an officer in the Earth Kingdom military. He was sure to have heard about Uncle and his military exploits.

Before he could express his alarm to his uncle, the old man strode forward and enveloped Uncle Iroh in a warm hug.

“I—er—Mushi!” Leung said.

“Leung! It’s been too long, my friend!” his uncle said. Leung drew back and examined his uncle, a serious expression on his face. Zuko stood still, tense with anticipation, wondering what he would do next. Did he recognize his uncle as the Dragon of the West? Would he call his uncle out? Expose him for the firebender that he was? Or as Pai Sho buddies, did he already know that his uncle was a firebender and was just waiting for the right moment to call the authorities?

Before Zuko’s imagination could run wild with worry, Leung smiled and bluntly said, “I’ll say. You’ve gotten fat.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just some things:  
> * I like languages so at least within the universe of my story, the four nations speak different languages, with the Earth Kingdom speaking Mandarin. But when speaking with people from other nations, everyone can understand each other because there is a Common Tongue/Common Speech, sort of like how the Fellowship in the Lord of the Rings can understand and speak to each other because they all just speak Westron (the Common Tongue in LOTR). Zuko and Iroh speak the Earth Kingdom very well, like natives because I headcanon that as royalty, they were trained to learn and understand enemy languages to better help them in the war.
> 
> **I modeled it after China and Japan's "humble culture." In China and Japan, it's typical to respond to compliments by deflecting the compliment or downplaying it. Humility is deeply ingrained in their tradition and culture. When I went to the two countries, people responded to praise and compliments with self-effacement instead of a "thank you." In my fic at least, the Earth Kingdom has humble culture because the country like their element, values humility and being "down to earth" so they see this as something that reinforces that virtue. 
> 
> ***I wanted the color of mourning to be white like how it usually is in China but I saw that white was already used in the Fire Nation. To distinguish between the two cultures, I just decided to make the Earth Kingdom color of mourning black like how it is in Japan and South Korea.
> 
> Thank you for reading. Comments are greatly appreciated!


	4. Neither is as Close

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Zuko and Iroh learn more about Ba Sing Se and Zuko discovers the horrors of working in the service industry.

There was a moment of silence.

Jin looked at Leung in silent reproach, worried that her grandfather’s comment might have offended Uncle Iroh. But Zuko knew his uncle well enough to know that he probably wasn’t bothered in the least bit. As expected, his uncle broke out into loud, boisterous laughter.

He patted his stomach and cheerily said, “Retirement has been good to me. And you treating me to this meal isn’t helping. You really didn’t need to go through all this trouble.”

“Nonsense! This is really just a humble meal, nothing extravagant at all. And anyway, it’s not every day I get to welcome a Grand Lotus into our illustrious city.”

There it was again. Grand Lotus. He had heard that word bandied about in the dessert and had asked his uncle during the entire journey to Ba Sing Se what it meant. But Uncle Iroh had merely given him a cryptic smile and said that since Zuko was not even an initiate, he could not be privy to any of his Pai Sho Club’s secrets.

“And did everything go well? Was your journey smooth?” Leung asked.

“Went off without a hitch. Jin was such a lovely guide. So welcoming, so efficient! You must be proud to have her as a granddaughter.”

As was typical of most Earth Kingdomers, Leung immediately deflected the praise and feigned surprise. “Was she? Ah well, she’s alright I suppose.”

“And who is this strapping young man?” his uncle asked, bending his knees a little. Jin’s brother had drawn nearer, piqued by the presence of this strange, new man. The boy glanced at Uncle Iroh from behind Leung’s expansive robes.

“My grandson Shun. Shun get away from there and greet Mushi properly!”

The boy darted forward and gave a deep bow.

“Ten-thousand fortunes! I humbly greet you, Mushi _Laoyeh_. My name is Shun,” he said, carefully using the more formal kètàoyǔ (or “courteous language”) that Earth Kingdomers frequently used in the presence of important people.

“My daughter-in-law Sachi,” Leung said gesturing at the woman. Sachi also gave a deep, formal bow. She placed her hands at her side and bowed at an angle of nearly ninety degrees. Her neck and spine were ramrod straight and she was careful not to look at Zuko’s uncle. Not for the first time, Zuko wondered how important his uncle was in this secret club. When Jin first met his uncle, she also bowed in the same manner. In the Earth Kingdom, a bow that formal was only reserved for high authorities.

“I am so pleased to meet all of you. Please, let us not be so formal,” his uncle said. He gave an equally deep bow, to signify that he saw himself as their equal and therefore, he wished to be treated as such.

“My name is Mushi,” his uncle said, addressing Sachi and Shun. Zuko marveled at how he managed to say that ridiculous name with a straight face. He then placed a hand over Zuko’s shoulder and in an embarrassingly proud tone, said, “My nephew, Lee.”

Zuko faced Leung and mindful of the man’s former position in the military, he also gave a formal bow. From the corner of his eyes, Zuko saw Leung give him a look of approval.

“It’s an honor to finally meet the beloved nephew whom I’ve heard so much about,” Leung said. He pursed his lips and gave Zuko a critical eye. Zuko waited with baited breath, sure that the old man would make some sort of comment about his scar—he had seen Leung’s eyes lingering over the burnt flesh for an uncomfortably long time. Sachi and Shun had also gawked at it when they first saw him, although they managed to hide whatever emotion they felt towards his scar well.

To Zuko’s astonishment, Leung merely gave a nod of satisfaction and commented, “He’s a fine boy, Mushi. I can see why you treasure him, so.”

Zuko could feel himself redden at this and from behind, he distinctly heard Jin give a soft, “Awww.”

Leung glanced at the host who was silently waiting for them to finish by the door. “Well? Are you going to bring the food in or do you mean to starve us to death?”

“Right away, sir,” the host murmured as he took a step back and darted outside.

“Don’t just stand there. Come in, come in!” the old man said as he bustled them inside. He gestured at his uncle to take his place at the middle seat facing directly the entrance. At this, Zuko’s curiosity intensified. Earth Kingdom culture dictated that, that seat was reserved only for the head of the household. For Leung to give it up for his uncle meant that his uncle was a revered guest.

Zuko attempted to take the seat usually reserved for strangers or the youngest member, which was the one facing the wall, directly across his uncle but the old man shook his head and pulled him to his uncle’s right. Zuko flushed with embarrassment—where he was sitting was usually reserved for the next members of importance. It felt strange to take that seat over Sachi, who was a more senior family member. Leung sat to the left of his uncle while the rest of his family seated themselves in accordance to the traditional Earth Kingdom family hierarchy. The youngest, Shun, sat with his back turned from the door.

Leung pushed a scroll and a small cotton bag filled with something heavy towards his uncle.

“Small welcoming tokens for your arrival in the city,” he said. Uncle Iroh unfurled the scroll and Zuko leaned towards him to read what was written on it. On the scroll was a quote from _The Four Books and Five Classics_ : “The man who moves away a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” It was written in the slightly more elegant Hsin Shu or Walking Script style, which was the mark of a fairly good calligrapher.

“Jin did it herself. She thought it would be nice to hang up your wall.”

“It’s very, very good. She has powerful, dignified strokes.”

This time, Leung did not even bother to feign humility. He proudly said, “I insisted that she learn. She has mastered almost all five of the major calligraphy styles. Granted, she's nowhere near as good as me but I dare say that with time, she may even be better than me. It’s true, we don’t have a lot of money. But I still thought she ought to immerse herself every once in a while, in the culture and the arts.”

Uncle Iroh nodded in approval before focusing his attention on the small bag. He opened it and suddenly jerked back. The bag was filled with gold and silver coins.

“Leung…we cannot accept this!” his uncle protested in embarrassment. Although he had genially gone along with this lunch, never once ashamed that they were at the receiving end of so many people’s efforts, even the last vestiges of his princely pride would not allow him to accept a handout.

“Don’t be ridiculous! I would take it if I were you. Rent here is extremely exorbitant. You’re going to need it if you want to be able to live somewhere other than the Shelter—‘’

“Yes, but I am sure my nephew and I can just pay for the rent using money from our new jobs—‘’

Leung laughed. “Do you really think your job as _tea-servers_ is going to be enough to cover everything? Everyone in the family, except Shun, is working and sometimes it’s not even enough. Come now, no need to be embarrassed. We all needed a little help when we first got here.”

“This is too much. Especially since you’re treating me to lunch.”

“Do you actually think I gave you that much money? In this economy? Pah! We got our friends from the Upper and Middle Rings to give you those.” He gave an impish smile. “This lunch is already my contribution. I didn’t put a single penny in there.”

Iroh grinned back at him, pacified.

As the food was being brought in, it became increasingly clear to Zuko that for all of Leung’s talk of it being a “humble meal,” they had actually spent a lot of money for this lunch. Zuko had been in the Earth Kingdom long enough to know that they were having a traditional “lao diat” which was a type of banquet that consisted of eight to ten meals. The waiters first brought in a large plate full of appetizers such as smoked ham hock, drunken chicken, jellyfish salad, shrimp in mustard mayonnaise and century eggs. Because he was the guest of honor, no one got any food until his uncle invited the youngest member, Shun, to eat.

The appetizers were followed by a rich selection of braised sea cucumber, crispy fried possum-chicken in garlic sauce, eight treasures winter melon soup, red cooked meat with steam buns, kung pao frogs, mustard greens with crabmeat and most impressively, steamed sea bass with ginger. In the Earth Kingdom, seafood became more expensive the farther inland you got. With Ba Sing Se being a landlocked city several miles away from the coast, Jin’s family must have paid good coin to have this dish. Instead of the regular fare of baijiu, the food was served with traditional shao-hsin wine and mao-tai which was the most sought-after liquor in the whole Earth Kingdom. To Zuko's slight amusement, Shun took his role as the youngest member seriously and was alert to refill everyone's cups with his little hands, whenever their cups were in danger of being empty.*****

It was also becoming clear to Zuko that Jin’s voracious appetite ran in the family. During dinner last night, he was astounded to see how much she ate. She piled food after food in her plate and ate with a gusto that did not match her slight frame. He had never seen a girl eat that much before—back in court, it was considered bad form, unladylike even, for a woman to eat such huge portions.

Except for Sachi who only got a small piece of each dish and ate in surprisingly elegant bites, Jin’s family heaped food on their plates and took a second and even third helping of several dishes. To their credit, they always ensured that Iroh and Zuko received a sizable share before taking another helping and were careful to leave the choicest cuts and special delicacies untouched. Midway through, Sachi noted that Zuko was still eating in the fashion he was taught in court (which was to eat the dishes one at a time and never to mix them together in one plate).

“Lee, you’re not eating much,” Sachi observed.

“What’s the matter? Don’t you like the food?” Leung bluntly interjected.

“W-What? Er…that’s not it—‘’

“Hmm…” Leung stroked his beard, looking more thoughtful than angry. “I know the sea bass isn’t as fresh and it’s smaller fare compared to a typical lao diat. But this is the best restaurant in the Lower Ring. Maybe I should have forced Seok-ho to treat you to a meal in the Upper Ring…”

“No!” Zuko hastily said, not wishing to offend the old man.

“Er…I like it very much…it’s just that…” He trailed off, not really knowing what to say. He couldn’t very well say that he was just observing proper court decorum.

“The food is magnificent, Leung. He’s just shy,” his uncle said.

“Well, don’t be,” Sachi said. “Come, eat some more.”

She leaned over and dolloped a spoonful of meat into his plate. Zuko bowed his head, muttering his thanks.

“If you want a dish and have trouble getting it, just hand me your plate so I could give you some. Don’t be shy, eat as much as you like,” Sachi said. The open and inviting expression on her face was so very much like Jin’s that he immediately wanted to quell her disappointment and be more appreciative of the food. He reached out and began to grab bigger portions of each dish. Sachi nodded her head, mollified. Noticing that his cup was empty, she grabbed a bottle of mao-tai and poured some more wine into it.

“This is your fourth cup already!” she exuberantly said. “My, you’re certainly a good drinker!”*

Zuko reddened. Like the Fire Nation, the Earth Kingdom had a robust drinking culture and he knew that Sachi’s comment was meant as a compliment. He couldn’t receive all the credit though—three years of spending time with sailors who downed more toxic stuff than this had given him and his uncle a healthy tolerance for alcohol.

Aside from having big appetites, Jin’s family were also lively conversationalists. Between the four of them and his uncle, there was never a dull moment in the entire meal. All of them spoke in the brisk Ba Sing Se manner but Zuko could not help but note that at certain points, Leung and Sachi would slip into another accent or sometimes, say words which were in another Earth Kingdom dialect altogether. Leung had a clipped, sharp accent that made him sound harsh and aggressive even when he wasn’t angry. He pronounced “zh” and “sh” sounds as “z” and “c” and spoke in six tones, instead of the Earth Kingdom standard of four, indicating to Zuko that he had come from the south or the Huanan Province.

In stark contrast, Jin’s mother spoke in the delicate, unhurried Eastern drawl. She would aspirate her stops and sometimes forget the “er hua” sound. Whenever Leung and Sachi addressed Jin in their native accents, Zuko noticed that she would seamlessly shift her accent to match either of theirs. The rapid way in which the conversation flowed combined with the way they would unwittingly switch dialects gave Zuko a headache. He often found himself almost using Fire Nation intonations and had to take greater care than usual to make sure that he kept up the standard Earth Kingdom accent.**

“And so, how do you like the Lower Ring? How do you find the smell?” Leung asked in between bites of possum-chicken.

“Gramps!” Jin said, although there was no true reprove in her voice.

“What?” Leung said, thoroughly unbothered. “It’s true, this place smells disgusting. They’re gonna have to get used to it. Especially since they don’t have any proper bathroom. She did tell you right? That your apartment doesn’t have one? You’re gonna have to busk it in the communal bathroom.”

“ _Communal_ bathroom?” Zuko said, unable to keep the contempt away from his voice. How disgusting! It seemed like this city never ran out of ways to horrify him. At least when he and uncle were on the road, they could take proper baths in the privacy of a hidden river or lake.

“Almost all apartments here are built that way. Saves up on space,” Leung shrugged. “I suggest you two start saving up so you can go to a decent bathhouse once a month. You’re gonna need it to wash away the stink.”

“The Lower Ring certainly smells…interesting,” Uncle Iroh diplomatically said.

Zuko snorted. That was an understatement. When they drove around in the rickshaw, there was the distinct smell of rot and excrement that permeated the air. If someone told him that people merely shat in the canals along the street, Zuko would not be surprised.

“But it’s a very lively place with many attractions. I especially can’t wait to see a show in the theater,” Uncle Iroh continued.

“Ah. Ruifang Theater, yes,” Leung said, nodding his head. “That’s where Jin’s dance troupe performs sometimes.”

“You’re a dancer?” his uncle said, looking at Jin with delight. “Why didn’t you say so?”

Jin flushed and for the first time since Zuko met her, she looked shy.

“Not a professional one,” she hastily said. “I just take lessons in between classes and work…”

“ _Not a professional?_ Pah! Do you have any idea how much Itani charges for your dance lessons? With all the money we’re paying her to teach you, I’m going to keep saying that you’re a professional dancer,” Leung said, giving his granddaughter a cheeky smile.

He leaned towards Iroh and in a conspiratorial voice, he said, “When she was six years old, she threw a big fuss over getting dance lessons. Wouldn’t shut up until her father finally gave in.”

“You wanted to be a dancer?” Uncle Iroh asked.

“Before. I saw a show once and thought that they were very pretty and made up my mind to be like them,” Jin admitted.

“Well, professional or not, I insist on watching a show of yours sometime,” Uncle Iroh said. Jin beamed at him, pleased at his interest.

At some point, Leung and his uncle became engrossed in a friendly debate over what a particular passage in _The Four Books and Five Classics_ meant. Shun, who had been staring at Zuko’s broadswords in quiet curiosity, seized the opportunity to speak to him.

“Is that a real sword? Can it cut through people? Can I look at it? Can I touch it?” he asked in rapid succession.

“Shun!” Jin scolded, lightly elbowing her brother’s shoulder. “Knock it off. Lee’s trying to eat.”

“But I just wanted to ask him if it’s real,” Shun said. “I’ve never held a real sword before. Well, just the ones in the plays. My uncle has a sword but he never really lets me touch it, even though I’ve asked him nicely and even offered to do some chores for him—‘’

“They’re real,” Zuko said, deciding to spare himself from what would probably be several minutes of ceaseless chatter. “They’re dao swords.”

“So, there’s _two_ of them? _Cool_ ,” Shun said, his already big eyes widening further. “Can I hold them?”

“No. They’re not for children to play with.”

“But what if I’m not going to play with them? What if I want to learn how to use them?” An excited grin broke across his face and he suddenly started to bounce up and down in his seat. “Wait, what if _you_ teach me how to use them?”

“No.”

“Why not?” Shun pouted.

“Because you’re too young.”

“No, I’m not. I’m already five years old,” he said, puffing his chest out in childish pride. “I got my earthbending just last summer and already started with my earthbending lessons. Hey! Maybe we could do an exchange! I could show you some earthbending moves and you can show me some sword tricks. Are you a bender?”

“…No.”

“Oh. Well that’s okay. We can’t all be earthbenders. Jin isn’t one. She’s perfectly ordinary—‘’

“Hey!” Jin protested.

“—but she’s still pretty cool. She has a mean right hook!” Shun said, pantomiming a punch.

“That’s…nice.”

“Why do you have your swords now? Did you run into trouble?” Shun asked, resuming his interrogation.

“No. I just bring them wherever I go,” Zuko shrugged.

“Oh, you’re like a hero, then! Like the Monkey King?”

_Who?_

“…No.”

“Oh. So…” Shun tapped his chin, a thoughtful look on his face. “Does that mean you’re in a gang?”

“Shun!” Sachi said, looking scandalized.

Shun blinked slowly and gave a genuinely confused look. “What? The only persons I see who carry weapons in the street are gang members. It’s okay, we won’t judge you if you’re one. My Uncle Seiji used to belong to a gang—”

“ _Shun_!” Sachi crossly said. She gave Zuko and Iroh an embarrassed look. “It’s true, my brother used to be a member in a gang but he’s past that nonsense now.”

“Seiji, like most people got roped into doing stupid things when he was a teenager.” Leung interjected. The new topic seemed to have distracted Leung and his uncle from their conversation. The two of them were now leaning forward, a look of interest on their faces. “Thank Oma and Shu that he’s gotten a hold of his senses and made a proper life for himself before those hooligans could sink their claws into him even further.”

“Oh, I won’t judge. All of us, I think, have done things in our past which we regret,” his uncle sincerely said. “Although…I must confess, I wasn’t aware that there was a gang problem here in Ba Sing Se. From all the stories I’ve heard, I was under the impression that Ba Sing Se was practically crime-free.”

“Pah! Those people were lying. The Shaho Gang, Bamboo Union, Wah Kee…they’re everywhere in the Lower Ring. These gangs control certain districts and some shops pay them for protection so it would do you well to be familiar with them,” Leung said.

“The Dai Li had tried to eradicate them several times but the Lower Ring is just too big and unwieldy. And some of these gang lords enjoy immense power and support from the common people,” Sachi said.

“They usually don’t bother you, unless you offend them or encroach on their opium and contraband-smuggling operations,” Jin added.

“Still, it’s best to keep out of their way. Especially you Lee,” Leung said. Zuko looked at him, startled at being addressed.

“Me?”

“Boys like you are prime targets for recruitment. Although…” His eyes gleamed with a mischievous look that was uncannily like Jin’s. “If you are as good of a nephew as your uncle says you are, you won’t fall into their ways and cause trouble.”

“Indeed. I’m not worried at all,” Uncle Iroh said. He patted Zuko’s shoulder and grinned. “My Lee over here is _kind_ and _obedient_ boy.”

Zuko scowled, trying to tamp down a surge of embarrassment while Jin gave an amused smile which she hid by drinking her tea.

“Still, I would rather have a hundred of those gangs than the Dai Li,” Sachi hissed.

Immediately, a dark and angry look crossed over all their faces. Even Jin, who never regarded anyone with anything less than warmth and kindness, was strangely subdued. She sat in stony silence as her hands balled into fists. From beside her, everyone’s eyes were downcast, their bodies tense with barely suppressed rage. Zuko sensed that whatever this was, it was something that was personal to the whole family.

Leung’s lips curled into a sneer.

“Ah. Yes. The _Dai Li_ ,” he said, spitting the word out as if it was a three-day old dumpling. “Has Jin already told you about…”

He trailed off, making a vague gesture with his hands. Whatever he was about to say lingered in the air, amplifying the tense silence.

“Not yet. But I have heard stories,” Uncle Iroh evenly said.

“Stories about what?” Zuko asked, curious. His eyes darted back and forth between Leung and his uncle. It was clear to him that they were speaking about something that could not be said in the open. Leung was uncharacteristically guarded. Instead of the torrent of words that carelessly fell from his mouth, there was only silence. He would open his lips, as if to speak, only to close it again. The effect reminded Zuko of gaping fish.

“Jin…should have told you earlier,” Leung finally said. He gave his granddaughter a stern look. Jin shrank back, looking slightly contrite.

“Told us about what?” Zuko impatiently asked.

“About the War Denial Policy.”

“The War _what_?”

“War Denial Policy. Edict No. 1213. Issued by our most illustrious leader, Grand Secretariat Long Feng,” Leung sarcastically said. “All talk of the Hundred Year War is forbidden within Ba Sing Se.”

Zuko stared at him, too stunned to speak. Uncle Iroh on the other hand didn’t seem to be particularly surprised.

“I have heard a few tales here and there in my travels. But I always wondered how he was able to pull it off?” his uncle said, saying the exact question Zuko meant to ask.

“Propaganda. Lots and lots of it. If you say something enough times, it becomes true,” Leung said.

With a kind of cold detachment, he explained the Dai Li’s massive propaganda drive. After the Siege, the entire city nearly collapsed. In response to the rapidly deteriorating peace and order situation, Long Feng issued the edict prohibiting everyone from speaking about the War. At first, nobody took it seriously. It was common knowledge to everyone that Long Feng hid the war from the young Earth King but to order every single person in the city to act as if it didn’t exist? And so soon after many families lost sons, brothers and fathers? Impossible!

But with the coming days, Long Feng had made it abundantly clear to everyone how serious he was. The edict was couched in terms of “moving forward,” “getting rid of the old and making way for the new,” and “focusing on a brighter, better future” making it seem more like an encouraging proclamation, meant to comfort the Earth King’s people rather than a hard and fast law. But then, suddenly school curriculums were revised—teachers avoided all mention of the War and the Siege was never alluded to. There was no war in Ba Sing Se. All the lives lost and all the suffering they had endured during the Siege was a result of “a second catastrophic earthquake.” Government libraries and annals were purged to redact and destroy every single record that pertained to the War. All military and government officials were forced to swear an oath to uphold the new edict.

“It’s not enough to order people to forget about the war. You have to make sure that they would do it. That’s what the Dai Li was for,” Leung said.

The Dai Li was an elite police force that conducted surveillance all throughout the city. They gathered intelligence and carefully scrutinized everyone for the most minor infractions—even a split-second mention of the War was enough to warrant an investigation. While the Dai Li always had a history of spying on their citizens, surveillance had intensified after the edict.

Upon noticing Zuko’s alarmed look, Jin hastily said, “Don’t worry. Their presence is not as pervasive here in the Lower Ring. It’s hard for them to keep it up here, especially with all the refugees. And well…most of the people who fought in the Siege were from the Lower Ring. So, everyone mentions it at some point or the other. And they literally can’t arrest _every_ single person.”

“Still, I’d be careful if I were you,” Leung darkly said. “They have other ways of keeping an eye on you.”

He explained that apart from outright spying, they employed other forms of “quiet” surveillance. One common form was the “sandwiching method.” You would be placed under close watch by two neighbors who had been specifically assigned this task, often called “two greens sandwiching a black.” Of course, other neighbors, through residents’ committees were also entitled and encouraged to report and inform on the unreliable “black.” As such, control over the population was watertight because it enlisted so many citizens in active collusion with the state.

Eventually, telling fantasies to oneself and believing them was practiced to an incredible degree. Farmers whose crops burned during the Siege would say that they lost their produce because of bad weather, even though the season was particularly fine that year. Families who lost husbands and fathers to the War had to make up convoluted stories about how they died from sickness or from the “second catastrophic earthquake.” Refugees would tell new friends that they moved to Ba Sing Se not because they were fleeing from the Fire Nation but because they wanted “a change of scenery.”

“Zi-qi-qi-ren” or “self-deception while deceiving others” became the new norm. The whole city slid into doublespeak. Words became divorced from reality, responsibility and people’s real thoughts. As they went about their everyday lives, everyone participated in pretending that the war did not exist. It was easy to lie because words had ceased to be taken seriously by others. And slowly, some began to actually forget. Under a regime where information was withheld and fabricated, it was very difficult for ordinary people to have confidence in their own experience or knowledge. Combined with the tidal wave of fervor which promised to put away any attempt at resistance, it was easier to start ignoring reality. To go along with the lie was by far the easiest course. To pause and think and be circumspect meant trouble.***

It meant disappearing.

“Like my son,” Leung grimly said. Zuko, who had been reaching for a piece of kung pao frog, stilled. His uncle looked at Leung with eyes that went beyond sympathetic and touched understanding and sorrow. He knew, all too well, the pain of losing a son.

“Ah, yes. I’ve heard,” his uncle said.

“After what they did to him…after everything that they’ve put him through…killing him was a mercy,” Leung said. He took a deep, long sip of his tea. “Re-education methods during the early years weren’t as refined, I’m afraid.”

“They tell me that he was a very bright, good boy,” his uncle offered.

“The most filial son you could ask for,” Leung confirmed. “But he had too big of a mouth.”

“Dad—‘’

“Gramps—‘’

Jin and Sachi spoke up at the same time, glaring at Leung with an incensed look.

“It’s true,” Leung flatly said. He tried to sound unaffected but his eyes were suspiciously wet. “I’ve told that boy time and time again to _shut up_. But he wouldn’t listen. Sometimes, I ask the Sprits why they saw fit to give me such a strong-willed and obstinate son.”

“Because what they were doing was wrong. Yeung Hsin only spoke up for the truth,” Sachi said in a harsh tone. Zuko flinched, taken aback by intensity in her voice. “Downplaying and ignoring all the sacrifices our soldiers made…forcing us to pretend as if…as if…they died from a common accident. It’s an insult to those who died in the War! It spits in the face of every horrible thing we went through during the Siege! But then again, what would they know? All those fools in the Middle and Upper Rings who supported this ‘ingenious’ policy never even fought in the Siege!”

Beside him, Uncle Iroh looked down, his eyes as sad as they had been the day Zuko had greeted him at the docks, just after Lu Ten died. Zuko remembered that in the months that followed, his uncle’s eyes were wet with unshed tears, even when he was smiling or joking. Every part of him had looked like he had given up.

Suddenly, his uncle pushed himself back from the table, kneeled on the floor and bowed so low that his forehead was touching the floor.

“I’m truly, truly sorry for your loss,” he said.

“Oh, please get up Mushi!” Sachi said as she grabbed his uncle’s arms and tried to force him to stand up. “Please. It happened years ago. And it isn’t your fault.”

Zuko and his uncle exchanged a look. While Sachi thought that Uncle Iroh was merely offering his condolences, Zuko knew that his uncle was actually apologizing for also causing the Siege. Zuko silently sat in his seat, feeling strange. The image he had of his uncle was of a patient and warm man, always ready to forgive him for all his shortcomings. It felt odd to know that his uncle, he who wouldn’t even raise his hand against a fly, was at some point responsible for the deaths of so many.

But that was war.

Death was expected. There were bound to be losses on either side. And if only the Earth Kingdom didn’t resist, if only they peacefully accepted the Fire Nation’s offer of sharing its glorious civilization with them, then there wouldn’t be so much death and destruction. This was all their fault, Zuko viciously told himself. All they had to do was surrender and everything would be okay. But they couldn’t even do that.

“Well, whatever our feelings about it, we can’t be too loud. And you shouldn’t be too,” Leung said, addressing Zuko and his uncle. “Even if they don’t have an iron grip in the Lower Ring, we must all be careful. They have a way of knowing everything.”

“Gramps is right. There’s a saying here in Ba Sing Se,” Jin said. Her eyes were distant and unseeing.

“Father is close, Mother is close but neither is as close as the Dai LI.”****

* * *

  
Three days into their “new life” and Zuko had already forgotten all about the ominous warnings Jin’s family gave him about the Dai Li. He was too busy being annoyed over his new job.

  
Pao was the owner of the teashop where they worked in. While he had taken to Uncle Iroh immediately, he was less than pleased with Zuko. After their first day, he had a long list of complaints: Zuko never smiled enough, he didn’t clean the tables in the right way, he was terrible at brewing tea (as if Pao was one to talk—Uncle said it himself, the man was a horrible tea-maker). Zuko gripped the edge of the table as he silently took in the barrage of criticisms; as much of an idiot Pao was, he was still their boss and it wouldn’t do to get fired on his first day. Jobs were hard to come by in this city.

The customers weren’t any better. Most of them were alright but a good number were rude and dismissive. When they wanted to order, they would beckon at him as if he was some sort of dog-bear and become angry if he was just a fraction of a second late in bringing their tea. And so many of them would make the most ridiculous requests! One fool actually demanded that he be brought jasmine tea without any jasmine it.

The pay was also awful. Leung wasn’t kidding when he said that it wouldn’t be enough for even a month’s worth of basic necessities. It amazed him to find that this was what passed off as minimum wage. Did anyone here actually think that this would be enough for a person to live a semi-decent life?

Despite everything, Zuko tried his best to improve. He hated this place with a passion but he knew that uncle liked it here. It was better in some ways; the apartment was cramped and filthy but at least they had proper beds, they could eat three square meals a day and they could have a good night’s sleep because they didn’t have to constantly worry about being attacked.

Still, there were times when he wished he could just burn the entire teashop down. One of such times was now. A mother had brought in a toddler and even though it was abundantly clear to Zuko that she should not be giving the child tea, the woman persisted in letting him take several sips. Predictably, the child screwed its tiny face into a pained cry and threw up all over the floor. And of course, no one could wait patiently while he cleaned it up. Several customers started to irately call him, demanding to have their order taken or tea served.

Serving these peasants was demeaning enough but now he had to go and clean their filth too.

“I can do it,” a familiar, perky voice said.

In his haste to face Jin, Zuko smacked his head against the underside of the table.

“Sorry,” Jin winced. He blinked, surprised to see her. Although she had promised to check up on them, he hadn’t seen her since she dropped them off at the teashop and introduced them to Pao.

“It’s fine,” he snapped. Her presence irritated him. He looked away, not wanting to see the pity in her eyes. He must look so pathetic, kneeling under the table as he tried to scrub the vomit away with the fraying rag Pao had given him. Well, he didn’t need her help and he certainly didn’t need her sympathy.

“Hey,” Jin gently said, placing a hand over his wrist. He glared at her, ready to tell her to go away. But he stopped upon seeing the expression on her face. She wasn’t looking at him with sympathy. Instead, she gave him a disarming smile and carefully took the rag from his hands. She looked as if she was helping him, not because she pitied him, but because she genuinely just _wanted_ to.

She was _so_ weird.

“It’s okay. I know what it’s like to be the only server,” Jin shrugged. She then made a “tsk” sound and shook her head. “That Pao! He can be so stingy sometimes. And after he promised me to start treating his employees better! I’m going to have to give him a stern talking to.”

“Server? I thought you guys owned a printing shop,” Zuko said.

Among the many things her grandfather blathered about in the lunch was the fact that they operated a printing shop near their apartment. It had taken a long time and several years’ worth of careful penny-pinching just to get it set up; because Ba Sing Se’s Department of Public Affairs and Communications wanted to tightly control all information, anyone who wanted to open a printing shop had to go through a long and arduous vetting process. Furthermore, the application process was repeatedly hampered by “family history” (which Zuko could only guess meant the incarceration of Jin’s father).

“Oh, we just started it two years ago. Before it, I worked in many odd jobs since I was ten.” Jin stated it plainly, as if it was just a fact of life that children as young as ten years old should already work.

“You worked since you were ten?” Zuko said.

“I had to pitch in somehow. After the Siege, food was really low because the crops were all burned and the economy was in tatters. Gramps was really old so he didn’t have a lot of options, mom had just given birth to Shun so she couldn’t really work. Dad was there to help but then…well…he got into trouble with the Dai Li and then…he was gone. So, I had to help pick up the slack,” she said.

She gave him a re-assuring smile when she saw the look on his face. “It’s okay. I’m luckier than most. Some were even younger when they started working.”

She nudged his shoulder and gestured at a particularly crabby customer who was giving him the stink eye. “Go on. I’ll take care of this. He looks like he’s just about ready to combust.”

He looked from her to the puke on the floor in silent indecision. Finally, he gruffly nodded his head and stood up, muttering a quick thanks.

The rest of the day passed by quickly. Zuko busied himself with taking orders, pouring tea and stocking empty teacups with an economy of movement that had become second nature. After Jin had finished cleaning up the vomit, she went up to his uncle and had a long, giggly conversation with him. Then, she went to talk to Pao. Zuko couldn’t hear what she was saying but he observed her from the distance. Her face remained as calm as ever and the only indication that she was giving him a “stern talking to” was the fact that Pao was looking steadily shame-faced.

Jin was eventually joined by his uncle and the three were locked in what seemed like a long and drawn out conversation. Finally, Jin gave a bow and headed towards the door, giving him a cheery goodbye as she left.

Whatever she and uncle said to Pao must have partially worked because while Pao still refused to hire another full-time server, he did agree to hire a part-timer to help them during the weekends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some things of note:
> 
> *If you've noticed in the previous chapter, Jin notes that Zuko and Jet are good drinkers. Added that bit in because China and Japan both have very robust drinking cultures. In some Japanese literature that I've read, the character usually takes note if someone is a good drinker and even finds a man who could hold his liquor as praiseworthy.
> 
> **As I've said, in this fic at least, the four nations speak different languages. I imagine a country as vast as the Earth Kingdom would have different dialects, just like in China. Jin grew up in Ba Sing Se her whole life but she can mimic other accents and speak other dialects well because of her parents. The bit where she switches accents is something that also happens to me--coming from a country with many dialects, whenever someone speaks the main language in another accent to me, I subconsciously find myself switching accents as well.
> 
> ***Based a lot of the Dai Li's tactics on what happened during the Cultural Revolution in China. "Self deception while deceiving others" is an actual phrase. During the Cultural Revolution there was really a kind of quiet surveillance called "two reds sandwiching a black." Obviously changed "red" to "green" to make it fit more in the Earth Kingdom context. "Black" refers to he Five Black Categories which were groups considered as enemies.
> 
> ****This is a line from a song during the Cultural Revolution "Mother is close, father is close but neither is as close as Chairman Mao."
> 
> *****Forgot to point this out the first time I posted this: I read somewhere that typically the youngest member in a table refills the cups if a server isn't present. Smol!Shun takes his job very, very seriously. 
> 
> This chapter is really conversation-heavy but I just thought I'd like to flesh out more what living in Ba Sing Se was like.
> 
> Thank you for reading. Comments are appreciated.


	5. Mean Right Hook

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Zuko runs into Jin. Literally.

Zuko was not lost.

This city just made no sense. It was as if it was built by drunken badgermoles—roads abruptly ended in front of buildings, streets curved and branched out into passageways that would lead to nonsensical intersections and the houses and buildings were arranged in a manner that made city-planners everywhere cry. The streets weren’t also labeled and if they were, the signs were so worn down that the characters were unintelligible. One street was marked as “Jiangxi Main Road” but when Zuko followed it, thinking that it would lead him back to the main thoroughfares, the “main road” ended in a high wall in the middle of nowhere.

The crowd certainly didn’t help matters. The amount of people that pushed past him seemed never-ending. Rickshaws, ostrich-horses, carriages and people piled indiscriminately into the street. There were stalls and carts on either side of the road and the vendors yelled and advertised their wares in varying accents and dialects. Some of them were extremely pushy and would accost Zuko and shove their products into his face. When he finally swallowed his pride long enough to ask for directions, the old man gave him such convoluted instructions that Zuko ended up in an entirely different part of the city altogether.

Feeling overwhelmed, he ducked into an empty alley and leaned against the wall, trying to fight the urge to panic. This was ridiculous. He was the crown prince of the Fire Nation. He had survived an assassination attack, blazed through an icy tundra and singlehandedly fought armed soldiers on an empty stomach. He could navigate his way around this wretched city. He just…needed to find a way to get a better sense of its layout.

Slowly, he looked up and squinted against the top of the building opposite to him. It was one of the taller ones and the uneven way the bricks were plastered on the walls made for natural footholds. He could climb up to try and see where he was. He moved forward and then hesitated, remembering Leung’s words about not attracting the attention of the Dai Li.

What if Jet caught Zuko and reported him to them? Zuko wasn’t an idiot. He knew that Jet was following him around; the older boy wasn’t very good at tailing people. But surely, climbing up a building didn’t have anything to do with the War Denial Policy now, did it? And anyway, it didn’t seem like Jet was around and it wasn’t as if he planned on getting caught—he was good at moving in and out of places undetected.

With his resolve affirmed, Zuko swiftly leapt up into a bar that jutted between the two buildings and used it to swing his body up a balcony before climbing the rest of the way using the grooves on the building as handholds. When he finally got to the top, he breathed a sigh of relief, happy to smell the open air and be away from the claustrophobia of the city.

Remembering why he was there, he leaned forward and examined the roads below. The pattern of the streets was easier to discern from above. They seemed to be arranged in a general grid-like structure, but within each grid, the streets curved and spiraled into many smaller streets and alleyways. The street where he had just come from looped into an area of shorter, blockier buildings before emerging out to a busier, wider street.

Zuko nodded to himself, deciding to head in that direction using the roofs. Things made more sense from up there and the structures of the Lower Ring were so packed that it would be a cinch to jump from building to building. He took two steps back before going into a running leap to the next building.

Midway through his run, he heard a familiar voice say, “Shun, we’ve been in this alleyway for thirty minutes. This doesn’t feel very much like a shortcut.”

He slowed down and dropped to a crouch. Jin and her brother were walking along the alleyway below, eating what looked like tteokbokki on sticks. Shun was clothed in the sleeveless outfits he typically saw earthbending students wear while Jin had on a deep green robe trimmed with yellow and fastened high at the collar. She must have just come from school—some of their regulars were students and they would wear the exact same uniform Jin had on.

“I’m telling you, Guen-soo told me that this street leads directly to our district! It’s faster and we don’t have to use the train so we can save up on pocket money,” Shun impatiently said.

“Why do you want to save up on pocket money? Mom gives you enough to have a little extra.”

“There’s just been something that I’ve been meaning to buy,” he said, doing a poor attempt at a cryptic voice.

Jin’s mouth quirked to the side, making her look like a cat. “Wait…does this ‘something’ happen to be the sword Dal-moon was selling?”

“No!” Shun said, far too quickly.

Jin laughed. “Shun…you’re way too young to play with swords—‘’

“No, I’m not! Five years old isn’t too young! Guen-soo’s father lets him play with knives—’’

“Yeah, cause Guen-soo’s father is part of Wah Kee. And did you see the size of that sword? It’s twice your height! Would you even be able to swing it around?”

“You don’t ‘swing’ swords around,” Shun said in an all-knowing tone. “You do this! And this!”

He pretended that his tteokbokki stick was a sword and began to dance around Jin, jabbing and slashing the sticks with a look of great concentration.

“Ha! I’ve got you!” Jin said as she slashed her stick into an arc and blocked Shun’s own stick. A bit of tteokbokki flew across the air and bounced against the wall opposite them.

“Hey! No fair! You caught me off guard!” he indignantly said. “And you’ve ruined my tteokbokki!”

“Pfft. There’s no such thing as fair in swordfighting. You know the saying. All’s fair in love and war.”

“I want a re-match! Best two out of three!”

Jin broke into a backwards run and stuck her tongue out. “You’re going to have to catch me first—ow!”

Her brother had used earthbending to elevate a part of the ground, causing Jin to trip and fall on her behind.

“Hey!” she protested. “You can’t use earthbending in a swordfight!”

Shun gave her a smug look. “You know what they say…all’s fair in love and war.”

The two of them dissolved into bickering. Zuko observed them, suddenly feeling inexplicably jealous. It had been a long time since he and Azula argued with each other that way. Their fights were never as playful—it usually ended in violence, with a lot of screaming and fire.

He wondered if he should go down and say hi to them. It had been weeks since he last saw Jin. She hadn’t gone back to the shop and he hadn’t run into her even though he knew that her school was only a couple of blocks away from the teashop. Would it even make sense to greet them? It wasn’t as if they were friends; they had only shared about three conversations with each other. And it had been so long since they’ve last talked that she had probably forgotten him.

Just as Zuko made up his mind to quietly go along his way, he suddenly heard a deeper, gravelly voice say, “Well, well, well, what do we have here?”

Zuko frowned and moved closer towards the edge of the building. Three men in raggedy clothes carrying knives and broadswords were circling Jin and her brother.

“It seems like a lovely flower has decided to take a walk in our part of the town,” a grimy-looking lacky supplied.

Jin looked calm but her hands were trembling and she was slowly backing away. Shun on the other hand was giving each of the men a fierce glare and was shaking his tiny fist at them.

“What do you want?” he yelled.

“Too bad she’s got a little brat with her,” the third man said.

“Now, now, be polite. We’re in the presence of a lady,” the one with the gravelly voice said. He seemed to be their leader.

“You’re right, boss,” the other lackey—the one with the hooked nose—said. “We shouldn’t let a sweet, young thing travel the streets by herself. Wouldn’t be very gentlemanly of us now, would it?”

“It’s alright,” Jin said. “My brother and I don’t need any help. We can find our own way home.”

“Is that so?” their leader said. He flashed Jin an oily smile and ran a finger across the handle of his sword. In a faux-apologetic tone, he said, “Alright. You can go your own way, then. But see the thing is… they’ve re-zoned this street, sweetheart. You and your little brother over here are going to have to pay the toll if you want to pass through.”

“And how much would that be?” Jin asked. Zuko quietly moved along the edge of the building until he reached the corner. There was a beam that hung with clothes and other linens fluttering in the breeze. Careful not to alert them to his presence, he used the beam to shimmy up to the edge of the shingles of the other building and swing on top of it.

“How about… _all_ your money?” the leader said.

"I’m not giving you our money!” Shun cried out. The leader chuckled, more amused at Shun’s antics than angered.

“Shun!” Jin hissed as she grabbed his arm and placed him behind her. She looked at their leader in the eyes and held her hands up in a placating gesture. Despite himself, Zuko couldn’t help but marvel at her ability to maintain her composure despite the dire situation she was in. “We would be happy to share with you some of our money. Sadly, you’re out of luck. We just spent it all…on this.”

She held up her tteokbokki stick and gave him an overly sweet smile.

“Liar!” one of the lackeys snapped, moving forward and pointing his knife uncomfortably close to Jin’s face. Zuko glared at them, furious. How dare they threaten a defenseless woman and child? If there was one thing Zuko hated more than anything in the entire the world, it was sick thugs who preyed on people that did not have the capacity to fight back.

“Get away from my sister!” Shun yelled, immediately moving into an earthbending stance. The three men laughed.

“Shun, stop,” Jin said, her voice becoming tense for the first time.

“Aww… look at him, boss. He’s so cute. Like a baby tigerdillo,” the hooked-nose lackey crooned.

“I’m warning you! Get away from…” Shun trailed off when he noticed Zuko climbing down the side of the building. Zuko met his eyes, pressed a finger to his lips and shook his head, indicating to Shun that he should be quiet. In quiet and precise movements, he pushed his feet against the wall, did a backflip and wordlessly landed on the ground.

The leader must have noticed that something was amiss because he frowned and said, “What are you looking at, you little brat?”

He turned a fraction of an inch, trying to catch a glimpse of what Shun was staring at. Zuko and the man stared at each other for a second and before either could react, the thug suddenly toppled over with a grunt. Jin, having taken advantage of the distraction, had punched the leader across the face. Zuko blinked at her, flabbergasted. He guessed Shun was right—she did have a mean right hook.

“Why, you little bitch!” the hooked-nose lackey screamed as he ran towards her. Jin ducked down and swiftly moved out of his way, causing him to crash into his companion. The leader staggered up and attempted to slash at Jin with his sword but she flung her tteokbokki stick against his nose and with a brisk movement of her wrist, disarmed him and threw the sword away.

“Time to go!” she said as she grabbed her brother’s arm and yanked him into a run.

“Ha! Take this…and this…you jerks!” Shun yelled. He kicked his little feet against the ground and earthbent a rock straight into the hooked-nose lackey’s chin.

“Come on Shun! _Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!_ ” she screeched, gathering her brother in her arms and running away…straight into Zuko.

“Ow!” Zuko said as she crashed into him. He, Shun and Jin fell on to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

“Lee?” Jin blankly said.

“What the—‘’

“No time to talk! We’ve gotta run!” she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him up. From behind them, the three thugs were starting to get up, a murderous look on their faces. Zuko wanted to tell her that they didn’t need to run, that he was perfectly capable of taking the thugs down. But Jin was already dragging him along. Together, they pounded across the pavement at breakneck speed, oblivious to the angry shouts and yells of the thugs.

Finally, they burst through the main road. Zuko grimaced at the crowd of people milling about on the street and hesitated.

“There they are!” the hooked-nose thug yelled from behind them.

“Come on!” Jin said as she hauled him toward the press of people.

Zuko realized that he didn’t need to worry about being shoved back and forth in the crowd. Jin was surprisingly nimble on the feet. She navigated them through the crowd with practiced ease, moving swiftly to the side or ducking away to avoid the rickshaws and ostrich-horses. When they made it through the opposite street, she pulled them through a series of winding alleys before stopping at a deserted corner.

Exhausted, she gently dropped Shun, leaned against the wall and with arms and legs trembling from fatigue, wearily sank into the ground.

“Whew. That was close,” she said in between pants of exhaustion.

“Close? We shouldn’t have even run,” Shun said. “We could’ve taken them!”

“No you couldn’t have,” Zuko interjected. “What the hell were the two of you thinking, walking around in a deserted alleyway like that? And punching that creep’s face? What would have happened if you weren’t able to get away? You two could have been seriously hurt!”

“Hey, don’t look at me. I wouldn’t have gone there if not for _this one_ ,” Jin said, playfully tugging on her brother’s ear and holding on as he tried to pry her off.

“Well I was right, wasn’t I? The shortcut did lead us to our district! We’re almost home!” Shun protested as he made several attempts to swat her hand away. “And besides, I bet Lee could have helped us take them down with his super freaky shadowalker skills!”

“Super freaky _what_?” Jin said.

“I saw him. He was climbing down the building. All sneaky and stuff like…like Guan Yu!”

Zuko gaped at him. “Who?”

“Famous Earth Kingdom warrior,” Jin explained. “He’s one of Shun’s favorite characters.”

“Hey! Can you teach me how to scale buildings? And do the flippity-flip thing you just did?” Shun eagerly asked.

Before he could once again tell Shun “no,” Jin interjected, “What were you doing climbing up buildings?”

“I was…er…”

“Looking out for lawless bandits to punish?” Shun supplied.

“...No.”

Shun dropped his head in disappointment while his sister gave an amused laughed and ruffled his hair.

“So…if you weren’t looking out for bandits… what were you doing with your super freaky shadowalker skills?”

“I was lost,” Zuko finally admitted. He folded his arms and gave her a defensive look. “Pao told me to buy some tea leaves from his supplier in the Sanxia District but I think I took a wrong a turn. I’ve been wandering around for hours so I thought that I would climb up a building to get a sense of where I was.”

“Sanxia? That’s the twenty-fifth district. It’s pretty far from where you were before…” Jin said.

“Yeah! Whoever gave you directions was a total _dumbhead_! He led you to the opposite side,” Shun said.

Zuko looked down, too embarrassed to admit that he was probably the one who messed up in following the directions given to him by the old man.

“Yep. From the teashop, you have to take Wing Lok Street until you reach the intersection,” Jin said.

Well, how was he supposed to know that? It wasn’t as if Pao gave him proper instructions on where to go and what to do. And the intersections here in Ba Sing Se weren’t even proper intersections! Some of them were dead-ends.

“Hey. Don’t worry. It’s not too late. Me and Shun can guide you there,” she said. “We’re pretty far though so we have to get there by train.”

“What? Noooo. The entire point of why we took the shortcut was so we wouldn’t have to pay for the train!” Shun complained.

“Yeah but because of us Lee is even farther away from Sanxia…” Jin said, giving his ear a slight twist.

“It’s alright. Just tell me where to go and I should be able to find my way there.”

“The train lines can be complicated for newcomers. It’s totally fine. We don’t mind helping!” Jin brightly said.

“But…I thought you said this was the district where you guys lived in?” Zuko said.

“It’s no big deal,” Jin shrugged. “I just got off from school and Shun finished his earthbending lessons.”

“Gramps is gonna kill us for being late,” Shun warned.

“Oh please, he can handle the shop by himself for a few hours,” Jin said. She looked at Zuko and gave him one of her disarming smiles. “Well, Lee? What do you say?”

He did want to get to Sanxia District so he could buy the tea leaves and finally go home. And the longer he was out here, wandering about the streets in circles, the more hours Pao would dock from his pay. A while ago, he had warned Zuko that if he “played hooky” and was gone for more than two hours, he would start deducting from Zuko’s salary.

“Okay,” he said.

Jin led them back to the main road and into one of the train stations. The train lines, just like everything in this Spirits forsaken city, was confusing. They intersected with each other in such a nonsensical fashion that when Zuko looked at the map, the lines seemed like scribbles drawn by a three-year-old. Jin tried to explain to him how the trains worked but he gave up trying to understand after a few minutes. Remembering that Shun didn’t want to use up their pocket money, he insisted on paying for the fare. He and Jin engaged in a short squabble before she finally gave in and allowed him to buy the tickets.

They waited for the next train in silence. After a few unsuccessful attempts, Jin had stopped trying to rope him into a conversation and satisfied herself with resuming the playful argument she had with her brother. She probably thought that he was being stand-offish. He didn’t mean to be so brusque—he just didn’t want her to get the idea that he was open to making friends.

As he observed the platform, the crowd on the opposite side of the tracks shifted, revealing a familiar tuft of brown hair. Immediately, he tensed.

“What’s wrong?” Jin said, noticing his unusual behavior.

“Nothing…I just thought I saw Jet.”

“Jet?”

“Who’s Jet?” Shun piped up.

“Just some loon who’s been following me around,” Zuko said.

“Following you around? When did this start?” she said, her brows scrunching together in concern.

“Since we got here. He’s always lurking about in the teashop and in our apartment,” Zuko said.

Jin’s eyes widened in alarm.

“What? Is he here now?” she said. She stood on her tiptoes and craned her neck, trying to look over the sea of people.

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Zuko said in a re-assuring tone. He wondered why she seemed so concerned. It wasn’t as if it was her problem. “He’s just being crazy. It’s probably nothing serious.”

“I know but—‘’

“Train’s here!” Shun said.

The train slowed to a stop and before Zuko could react, everyone pressed forward, elbowing and shoving each other, in a mad dash to get in. He drew back, deciding to give up and wait for the next one. There was no way he was going through that crowd of people.

“Come on!” Jin said, grabbing his hand.

“Are you crazy? We’re all the way back here, there’s no way we could get through— _whoa_!”

Jin pulled him forward, silencing all his attempts at protest. She gracefully weaved them through the crowd of people, expertly finding gaps in the press of bodies and swiftly dodging any attempts to push them back. With her spry steps and lithe movements, she once again distinctly reminded him of a cat.

“That was insane!” Zuko said once they finally made it into a compartment.

“That…was Ba Sing Se,” Jin grinned. “You’re going to have to learn how to get past the people. Otherwise, you’re always going to be shoved back.”

“Yep. It’s survival of the fittest out here in the train stations,” Shun said, drawing his brows together in an attempt at an ominous look.

The train was packed. Everyone was jammed so close together that Jin had to press up against him. They were so close that the small hairs on the back of his hand and his neck were standing up and he could feel her cool breath fanning against his neck. Her hair lightly tickled his chin and it smelled faintly of soap and ink. He was grateful that she was a bit shorter than him because that meant he didn’t have to look into her eyes.

He held himself very still, feeling himself grow redder by the minute. He hadn’t been this close to a girl in a very long time. What would be the polite thing to do in this situation?

In spite of all his attempts to fastidiously avoid her gaze, he looked down to see how Jin was faring. She seemed thoroughly unbothered. In fact, everyone in the compartment did. They all looked nonplussed, as if being crammed together with so many strangers was a commonplace occurrence.

In the middle of the ride, he noticed that Shun’s face was slick with perspiration. Because he was very small, he was standing by Zuko’s feet, squished in between many legs. The train was unbearably claustrophobic but it was probably worse down there.

Sighing in annoyance, he tugged at Shun’s collar and gestured at his shoulders, silently offering to hoist him up. Shun was only too happy to agree. The boy eagerly nodded his head and held his arms out. It took some time, especially with all the people pressed so close, but after some maneuvering, Zuko managed to place Shun on his shoulders.

As Shun tried to settle himself, he met Jin’s eyes and was startled at the expression on her face. She was looking at him as if he was the _most adorable little turtle duckling_ in the pond. He glowered at her in embarrassment.

“I just did it because he kept moving around my feet. It was annoying,” he gruffly said.

“Of course,” Jin said but the smile on her face told him that she didn’t believe him.

Finally, the train stopped, ending Zuko’s silent torture. They clambered down and even though Zuko told Jin that he didn’t need her help anymore, she pulled him forward and insisted on leading him to the shop.

Sanxia District was even more chaotic than usual. There were twice as many shops and in addition to the stalls at each side of the street, there were carts haphazardly positioned in the middle of the road. Jin told him that it was because Sanxia was the main marketplace of the Lower Ring. They walked for about several more minutes before reaching a dilapidated shop at the end of the road.

“Hey Jin! Haven’t seen you in a while!” a portly old man said.

Jin was unbelievable. Did she know everyone in this terrible city?

“Hey Bao! My friend over here wants to get some tea leaves,” Jin said. Zuko gave his order and Bao went to the side to prepare everything. Jin followed him, chattering away as he measured and wrapped the tea leaves.

With Jin occupied, Zuko pulled Shun aside, folded his arms and said, “What exactly do you want to buy?”

Shun blinked at him. “What?”

“You’re saving up on pocket money to buy something right? What is it?”

Shun mumbled something unintelligible. Zuko raised a brow and gave him a stern look, prompting him to speak.

“Well? What is it?”

“It’s a…sword.” Shun sheepishly looked up at him. “I just wanted to carry one around and look cool. Like you.”

Zuko’s lips twitched into a smile. “You’re too young to be carrying around a proper one. But I’ll tell you what. Some of the stalls here are selling wooden practice swords. If I give you enough money to buy one, will you promise to take the train every day instead of going through those alleyways?”

Shun’s mouth popped open like a fish. “Are you serious?”

“You guys caught a lucky break today but you won’t be able to fend them off the next time around. And they’ll probably recognize you. I’ll give you some money but you can’t go through that area anymore.”

Shun’s ears turned red. He mumbled, “Lee…it’s okay. I don’t need your money. I wasn’t planning on going back there anyway, even before you told me.”

“Still…take it. You wanted to buy something right?” Zuko said. He pressed the coins into Shun’s tiny hands before the boy could protest.

“Hey! Your order’s all done,” Jin said, coming up to them and handing him the bag. “We don’t need the train to get back to the teashop. We could just walk from here.”

“ _We_?” Zuko said.

“Me and Shun will bring you there.” Jin raised a brow at his look of protest. “Unless…you just want me to give instructions so you could find your own way back.”

Zuko hesitated. He would rather not trouble her any further, especially since she already did so much to help. And yet, the prospect of wandering around in circles and getting lost in their stupid, confusing roads was just too much for Zuko.

“If you’re okay with it,” he finally said.

“Of course we are!” Shun piped up. It seemed that getting a little coin made him more amendable to helping Zuko out.

“Come on,” Jin said, gesturing at him to follow her. The three of them walked into a road and kept turning left whenever they found themselves at a dead end. Finally, they found their way back to the teashop, where his uncle was by the window, pouring tea for a customer. When he saw the three of them, his lips widened into a particularly smug smile. He looked at Zuko and then at Jin, his eyes sparkling with amusement.

“Jin!” he called out from the window. “What a lovely surprise! It’s been a while since we saw you around here. Come. Why don't you and your brother stay a while and have dinner with us?”

“I’m afraid my brother and I can’t stay long, Mushi Laoyeh. We’re just helping Lee over here find his way,” Jin replied. She turned to Zuko and said goodbye as she began to walk backwards, Shun in tow.

“Thanks,” Zuko said.

“It was my pleasure,” she cheerily said. She sounded like she meant it too, as if it really was her pleasure to go out of her way to help him, even if meant leaving her district and going to a completely different part of town when they were already so close to home.

She truly was weird.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm busy with school stuff so new schedule for updates will be every Saturday and Sunday. Thanks for reading! Comments are greatly appreciated.


	6. Behind These Walls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jin tries to talk some sense into Jet.

“Hey, kid. Someone’s out there to see you,” Woo, the watchman at the Refugee Shelter said. He inclined his head towards the foyer and raised his brows. “You know the rules. No guests inside.”

Smellerbee sat up from her bed, curious. It had been nearly a month since she, Longshot and Jet had arrived in Ba Sing Se but they hadn’t really made any friends. At least, not anyone who liked them enough to make the effort to visit. They went on a few lunches with some co-workers and Jet sometimes played cards and gambled with his buddies at construction. But she couldn’t really think of anyone who would want to visit them. Well, no one that was except…

Immediately, she set her blanket aside and broke into a run towards the entrance.

“Jin!” Smellerbee yelled, waving frantically.

Before she could brace herself for the inevitable hug, Jin crashed into Smellerbee and scooped the smaller girl up in her arms.

“Bee!” she squealed.

“Jin…personal space…” Smellerbee wheezed. Jin was a naturally affectionate person and she hugged people and held their hands as easily as she drank water. Smellerbee was always at a loss with how to respond. Aside from being touch-averse, she was still a little leery whenever someone crowded her. Back in her Freedom Fighter days, the only reason why someone would want to come that close was so that they could stab you.

“Oh…er right. Sorry,” Jin said, embarrassed. She took a step back and beamed at Smellerbee.

Smellerbee grinned back, genuinely happy to see her.

Jin’s kindness had been unfailing and her presence changed everything. A day after they arrived in their assigned Refugee Shelter, she had visited them and offered to show them around Ba Sing Se. They spent a wonderful afternoon going around the city, riding the train, sampling the street food and visiting important buildings and monuments. Since then, Jin would sporadically visit, bearing a packet of sweets or a bag of bread and dumplings—things that were very much appreciated in the initial days when the three of them had no jobs and had to make do with the watery gruel served at the Shelter.

Jin also helped Longshot with his unemployment problem. A few days after their arrival, Jet had managed to charm and sweet-talk his way into getting jobs for him and Smellerbee. He found a job in construction; his experience climbing trees meant that he could scale buildings and balance on wooden frames with ease. He was also very strong and could haul up sacks full of gravel and sand with little to no problem. Smellerbee, on the other hand, ended up in a noodle shop. Her quick hands and dexterity with the knife proved to be useful skills in the kitchen; she could fold the dumpling wrappers and cut up vegetables and meat at an astonishingly rapid pace.

Finding a job for Longshot was a bit trickier. He was quiet, refused to talk even during his interviews and never made eye contact with any of the shop owners. When it became clear that nobody would hire him, Jin declared that he would work in their printing shop. It was perfect, she said. Of the three of them, he was the one who could actually read and write well and he didn’t need to talk to anyone at all as he would be spending most of his time arranging the wooden blocks or making the stencils. She dragged them off to her family’s shop where her grandfather, a crabby man with a sharp tongue, asked Longshot to carve some characters on a wooden block. Longshot’s fletching skills proved to be amendable to block-carving and after a few moments of quiet observation, Jin’s grandfather nodded and said that Longshot’s skills were “acceptable.” He hired Longshot on the spot and told him to start tomorrow.

“What are you doing here?” Smellerbee said as Jin handed over a small bag of _Ci Faan_. “Our housewarming party isn’t until next week!”

The three of them had finally saved up enough to leave the Shelter. The apartment they found was small, dirty and looked like a beaver-mole nest but at least they didn’t have to share it with a hundred other people. Jet was so pleased that he insisted on having a “housewarming party.” It was their first proper home, one that wasn’t just rafters in the trees and it was only proper that they celebrate. Ever enthusiastic, Jin readily agreed to come and even offered to bring sweets.

Jin suddenly looked serious. She placed her hands on Smellerbee’s shoulders and said, “It’s not about the party. I need to talk to you about something else.”

“What’s wrong?” Smellerbee frowned.

Longshot, who had been standing behind Jin, looked at Smellerbee, the upper corner of his lip curling ever so slightly. _She wants to talk about Jet._

Smellerbee’s eyes widened in alarm. “Oh no. What did he do now?”

Even though weeks had passed, Jet still hadn’t let go of his insane obsession of exposing Lee and Mushi as firebenders. Smellerbee and Longshot had tried their damnedest to put him off and for the last few days, it seemed like they had succeeded. Jet had stopped trying to rope them into convoluted schemes to have Lee and Mushi arrested and he even managed to get through one blessed dinner without uttering their names.

“Lee told me that Jet’s been stalking him!” Jin blurted out.

_“Stalking?”_

Longshot grimly nodded in confirmation.

“Yeah. Lee told me that Jet’s been following him around in the teashop and in his apartment.”

“Spirits! I knew that he still hadn’t let the whole firebender thing go but I didn’t think it was _this_ bad.”

“I know! I mean lurking around Lee’s _apartment_. Can you believe it?”

Longshot shrugged. _I can. Jet can be pretty stubborn once he sets his mind on something._

“I know but that’s no excuse for him to act like a total lunatic,” Smellerbee said, addressing Longshot. Jin just looked between them, bewildered at their seemingly one-sided conversation.

“Jet can be bull-headed,” Smellerbee said, interpreting “Longshot-speak” for Jin. “But I also think it’s because he’s feeling just a teeny bit cooped up in here.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s not used to city life. I think he’s finding it to be a bit confining.”

“Confining? Because of the shelter?”

“No. Just in general.”

Jet hadn’t been completely at ease since they arrived in Ba Sing Se. Smellerbee suspected that it was because he was finding city life unbearable. He had let it slip, once or twice that he missed the open fields and the trees. Sometimes, Smellerbee would catch him on the roof of the Shelter, staring at the sky with a look of a longing.

“Come on,” Smellerbee said in response to Jin’s questioning look. “Even you have to admit that this place is kind of suffocating.”

“Suffocating?” Jin indignantly said.

“Yeah. It’s so cramped and cluttered here. And don’t even get me started on your accents.”

“What’s wrong with our accent?”

“You say things too fast, like you’re always in a hurry.” For the last few words, Smellerbee herself took on the crisp Ba Sing Se accent. She, like Jet and Longshot (when he deigned to speak), spoke in the heavy midland accent that immediately marked them as provincials from the countryside. A few of her co-workers had pointed it out and although Smellerbee knew that the comment was nothing more than good-natured observation, she still found herself attempting to modify her accent to avoid sounding too rustic. Jet, on the other hand, was perfectly unashamed. All the passengers on the train would turn and stare when he broke out his midland accent, but he never seemed to mind. In his opinion, Ba Sing Se speech sounded too terse, just slightly less so than the Southern accent and as such, saw no need to adopt it.

“We do not sound like that,” Jin protested.

“Yes, you do. At first, I couldn’t understand anything. I kept asking people to say things twice,” Smellerbee complained. “And of course, there are all the rules. They have rules for _everything_ here.”

Jin looked slightly offended; she still had her pride as a born and bred citizen of Ba Sing Se after all. She opened her mouth and was probably about to give a long diatribe in defense of her beloved city when Longshot touched her shoulder and bent his head to the side.

Jin looked at him in confusion. Despite working with him for nearly a month, she still had trouble reading him. Smellerbee however, understood him perfectly.

“He’s probably stalking Lee because Jet wants to have him and his uncle arrested,” Smellerbee said, speaking in behalf of Longshot.

“He’s planning to do _what_?”

“Yeah…he’s been getting it into his head that they should be reported to the authorities. He’s been gathering evidence so that he could expose them,” Smellerbee mumbled.

“Gathering evidence? What exactly does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” Smellerbee defensively said. “It’s not like I’m joining him in his stalking. I’ve got better things to do. I have a job, you know!”

“I can’t believe he’s still doing this. Even after I told you guys about you know…”

Ah yes. The War Denial Policy. Jin had spent a great deal of time telling them about it. Nobody talked about the War in Ba Sing Se. Those who did disappeared and would be gone for months, years even. Sometimes they would come back but when they did, they would come back all…wrong. They still knew who they were and could recognize their families but they were empty shells of who they were—they smiled too much and acted more like soulless puppets than real persons. Jin said that they were the “lucky” ones because most people never came back at all. Just like Jin’s dad.

“I know, I know. We’ve been trying to get him to knock it off but he just won’t listen.”

“Well, you have to make him,” Jin said in a desperate voice. “If he starts stirring up trouble the Dai Li might get involved. That’s why I came here. I’m getting worried and I was hoping you could talk to him.”

“Talk to me about what?” a smooth voice interjected.

They all turned to find Jet leaning against the wall, a piece of grass pressed between his lips. It was clear that he had just come back from work—his arms were bare and his thick hair was matted with sweat. He languidly pushed himself off the wall and leaned forward, taking great care to flex his muscles. Smellerbee rolled her eyes. Jet just couldn’t resist showing off in front a pretty girl.

“Hey. Haven’t seen you in a while,” Jet said as he attempted to give Jin a one-armed hug. Despite her initial distress, Jin gave him a sincere grin and playfully ducked away from him.

“Ugh. Keep your sweaty hands to yourself!”

Jet pouted at her. “Now that’s no way to treat a friend.”

“You’re not my friend when you smell like _that_. Hug Smellerbee instead!”

Smellerbee swatted Jet’s arm and moved to the side. “Hey! I don’t want to hug him either! Longshot then—‘’

Longshot vehemently shook his head. The four them engaged in a small, silly game of catch before Jet finally gave up trying to hug any of them. Chuckling, he settled himself next to Longshot and wiped the sweat from the back of his neck with a towel.

“So, what are you guys doing?" Jet asked.

“We were talking about you, actually.” Jin folded her arms and gave him a stern look. “And your creepy habit of stalking people.”

Longshot glared at Jet and slowly raised one brow superciliously. _I can’t believe you Jet! Stalking?_

“Longshot’s right!” Smellerbee said. “What were you thinking following Lee around? I thought you told us that you had dropped it.”

“I never said that I would drop it,” Jet corrected. “I said that I would stop bothering you and Longshot about it.”

Jin exasperatedly said, “Well, you have to stop. I don’t want you to get into any trouble. The Dai Li are—‘’

“Serious business,” Jet wearily interjected. “I know. You’ve told me a million times. I get it, I really do.”

“Yes, but—‘’

“Now what I don’t get is…why you keep hanging out with him,” Jet said. His voice was even but the slight glower in his eyes betrayed his suspicion.

Jin looked taken aback. “What?”

“I’ve been asking around about you—‘’

“You’ve been stalking me as well?” Jin hotly said.

“Seriously, Jet? Can you get any creepier?” Smellerbee demanded.

“Yes. I had to make sure that you weren’t also a Fire Nation spy,” he calmly said, ignoring the offended expression on Jin’s face. “I didn’t entirely believe your story about first meeting Mushi and Lee at the docks. So, I went around your neighborhood and asked some people about you and your family.”

“ _You’re unbelievable!_ ” Jin exclaimed.

She flushed and leveled him with a furious, embarrassed stare. The overall effect however, was ruined by her round cheeks and large, doe-eyes—she looked more like an adorable, put-out baby seal puffin than an angry tigerdillo. Jet seemed to think so as well, because instead of taking Jin’s anger seriously, he shrugged and gave her an indulgent smile.

“They told me that your grandfather served in the army before coming to Ba Sing Se and is even some sort of big war hero. And your father and uncle were drafted during the Siege. They’re also earthbenders, right? Your grandfather and brother I mean. I’ve seen them practicing in the courtyard of your apartment.”

“You’ve been watching my brother and grandfather practice earthbending?”

Jet once again chose to ignore the flabbergasted expression on her face. He continued to forge on as if his behavior was perfectly normal. “So, if we take all that into account then clearly, you guys are not in cahoots with the Fire Nation. But what I don’t understand is…why? Why are you still hanging out with Lee?”

Jin opened her mouth to speak but Jet cut her off. “And don’t try to play dumb! I saw you with him at the train station the other day.”

“So, you _were_ there. Lee did mention that he thought he saw you.”

“What were you doing in the train station with him?” Jet demanded.

“Why is it a big deal? I’m not allowed to hang out with him now?”

“I’m just wondering why you would still want to be friends with him even after I’ve already told you that they’re _firebenders_.”

Jin, Smellerbee and Longshot gave a collective, long-suffering sigh.

“Jet…we’ve been over this before,” Smellerbee said the words as if Jet was a particularly slow and stupid child. “A man heating his tea does not prove that he’s a firebender.”

“And even if he is…that doesn’t automatically make him a spy,” Jin interjected. “I’ve already told you. He could be of mixed blood for all we know.”

“That’s no excuse to let our guards down,” Jet darkly said. “Even if he’s mixed, he could still be loyal to the Fire Nation. I’m telling you, there’s no trusting firebenders.”

Jin placed a hand on Jet’s arm and in the most soothing voice she could muster, said, “Jet, I understand how you’re feeling but—‘’

“How could you possibly understand?” Jet snapped. “You’ve been hiding here behind these walls all your life! You don’t know what it’s really like out there. So don’t you dare tell me to just ‘drop it’! Maybe you’ve been stuck here in la-la land for so long that you’ve already forgotten about the war but I haven’t!"

At this, Jin stilled. She blinked at Jet, clearly hurt, the expression of sadness in her eyes so palpable that it almost hurt to watch. Smellerbee and Longshot gaped at her. It was odd to see her like this—in the short time that they had known her, she had never been anything other than happy and exuberant.

“I haven’t forgotten,” Jin tremulously whispered. “And I will never, _ever_ forget. Just because I live here doesn’t mean that…that I’ve forgotten like everyone else!”

Jet seemed to realized that he had struck a nerve. “Jin…‘’

“Oh great. Now see what you’ve done?” Smellerbee said as she gave Jet a dirty look.

Longshot nodded in agreement. _Yes! You’ve hurt Jin’s feelings._

Jet had the decency to look shamefaced. His eyes softened and he gently grabbed Jin’s wrist.

“Hey, I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean to imply that you’ve become…like the people here,” Jet said.

Jin sighed and turned to look at him, a small smile on her face. “I know. Look, I’m sorry if I nag you too much. It’s just that…I worry about you. I don’t want you to get into trouble.”

“And he won’t,” Smellerbee firmly said. “We’ll take care of him. We promise.”

Longshot placed a hand on Jet’s shoulder and solemnly nodded at Jin. _Yes. We’ll make sure he won’t do anything stupid._

“I don’t need a babysitter!” Jet indignantly said as he shrugged Longshot’s hand off.

“Oh you totally do,” Jin snorted.

“I can take care of myself. I can handle the Dai Li.”

“I’m not talking about the Dai Li.” She gave him a playful flick on the ear and curved her lips into a mischievous grin. “If you keep this up, I’m pretty sure you’re eventually going to be mistaken for some sort of pervert and be arrested for violating public indecency laws.”

Everyone but Jet burst into laughter. He glared at them and whined that Jin was being unfair. He made a big show of being angry all throughout dinner but eventually, he dropped his irritated act and gracefully accepted all their teasing. By the end of the night, he and Jin had already forgotten about their row and were back to playfully bantering with each other.

They walked Jin to the train station and as they said their goodbyes, Jet cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, “Don’t miss me too much!”

Jin looked back and gave Jet one of her infamous cat-smiles.

“I’ll try my best.”

* * *

As worried as she was about Jet and his rather alarming obsession, Jin put it out of her mind.

She was as busy as ever. A new flower shop had recently opened up in the Sanxia District and it had commissioned them to print up two thousand flyers. She, Longshot and all the other employees in the printing shop stayed up beyond closing time for several days, carefully arranging the wooden blocks on the plate, gently brushing ink over the characters and stamping it on paper after paper. Then, there was some Order business which she had to attend to—three new members and their families were arriving in the city, so she had to spend a great deal of time preparing documents and filing papers. Despite the tediousness of the work, Jin was quite excited to meet them. One of them had come from Shantung, the easternmost island of the Earth Kingdom; her mother hailed from that place and she was eager to learn more about her mother’s hometown.

School wasn’t too much of a hassle. Math was always a bother but she had made great headway with _The Romance of the Three Kingdoms_ and her history essay was finally finished. What had actually taken up a lot of her time, even more so than work and Order business, was Miss Itani’s upcoming dance recital.

Jin went once a week to practice under Itani Gong Mo, the second gong mo dance mistress to carry that name. Itani was the granddaughter of the theater actor Lan Fang who was considered one of the “Four Great Dan” of Earth Kingdom opera. Of the two or three schools that called themselves Gong Mo, Itani’s was said to be the truest to the old tradition. Her studio was in the second-floor rooms up a narrow alley in one of the tea quarters and most of her pupils were amateurs like Jin. Only a handful were professionals, ladies who prior to becoming Itani’s pupils, had already immersed themselves in other schools of dance and earned the distinction of being dance masters.

Jin first met Itani when she was six years old. Her father had won a particularly good game of cards and the gambling pot was an exorbitant amount. Ignoring her grandfather’s protests to be prudent with the money, her father bought them tickets to see one of Itani’s shows. Itani was fifty then but she could have easily passed for someone who was decades younger. With her fine skin and lustrous black hair, Jin thought that she was second most beautiful woman in the world (with the first being, of course, her mother). The beautiful and colorful costumes, the grace and cool elegance with which the dancers moved, the way the ribbons moved fluidly about them like streams of water…Jin was captivated.

The very next day, she begged and begged her father to get her lessons. Her grandfather as always, protested and a wearisome and circular argument erupted between him and her father.

“Dad, what’s the harm? You’re always talking about how as Order members, we should immerse ourselves in philosophy, culture and the arts,” her father wheedled.

"That's what membership formation is for! And it's free!"

"Yes, but membership formation doesn't include dancing."

“Have you lost your mind? Did you hear how much that devil woman is charging?”

“It’s twenty times cheaper than what Itani would have charged if she was still—‘’

“A snob?”

“ _Rich_. And may I remind you, you also paid a great deal for Master Hyun to teach me calligraphy.”

“Because calligraphy is actually useful. If you want to immerse Jin in the arts, she should learn something dignified like calligraphy or philosophy or the _zheng_ ,” Leung shot back. “Only fallen women and concubines learn dancing—‘’

“Honestly, dad, you’re being ridiculous. Dancing is very dignified. Lots of noble ladies learn it. Itani teaches it and she’s not a fallen woman is she? Come on dad. Every other member in the Order is well-versed in at least one art form. If she is ever to become an initiate we need her to be a little more cultured. You don’t want the other members to look down on us, now do you?”

“Let them look down on us if they want to!” Leung barked. “My great-grandfather and every single family member after him earned our place in the Order fair and square. And we did it even during the times when we didn't have the money for any of those fancy lessons.”

At some point, it seemed like her grandfather would have his way but Jin was nothing if not persistent. She repeatedly made her request and her father, ever indulgent, eventually acceded. They set up a meeting with Itani and after a brief demonstration where Itani praised her “light feet,” Jin became a treasured pupil.

Like Jin’s mother, Itani was from the east, in the bustling and cosmopolitan city of Suzhou. Indeed, when she first came to Ba Sing Se, there was very little about her that was provincial and were it not for her pleasant, unhurried eastern drawl, one would have taken her for a true native of Ba Sing Se. As a former member of the nobility, Itani was used to the finer things in life and had refused to do any work which she felt did not suit her stature. She had engaged in many shouting matches with her father, who himself had taken on work as a menial clerk in the Lower Ring Census Office. She’ll be damned if a granddaughter of a Great Dan ended up working as a mere scullery maid. Her father might have lost all his dignity but she refused to sink to his depths.

Eventually, a compromise was reached. Itani would waitress but she would only give a small portion of her salary to her family—the rest would be savings for her dance studio. As always, in the end, Itani managed to get her way and maintained her dance studio for almost thirty years. Her pupils, amateurs and professionals alike, were much grieved to see the Suzhou dance lose to the Ba Sing Se dance. In their devotion to the Suzhou dance and their desire to show it to the rest of the city, some of the more enthusiastic among them had formed a club called the Daughters of Suzhou which presented a dance recital once a month at the Ruifang Theater.

Jin had never danced in such recitals before. She, like most of the younger students, still had a long way to go before mastering the forms and was therefore not yet ready to perform. However, Itani recently said that Jin had shown exceptional improvement and declared that she and another girl named Rin were ready to join the stage. Jin would only be dancing in one number “Flower Drum, Flower Lantern” which was considered the liveliest of all the dance performances.

Jin, who was always uncharacteristically shy when it came to her dancing, wanted it to be a low-key affair. But as usual, her mother made a big production of it. She invited everyone—their neighbors, her gossipy friends, Pao, Mushi, and to her horror, even Longshot (who had ignored her requests not to show up and told her that he, Smellerbee and Jet would happily come).

“Psst…pssst…Jin.”

Jin looked away from the mirror to find Lan grinning at her from behind the curtain.

“Lan!” Jin grinned. Lan was one of her oldest, dearest friends. She was a member of the theater troupe that performed weekly plays at the Ruifang Theater. She and Jin became friends because the theater troupe and Itani’s dancers often took turns using the stage for dry-run shows. Jin had been waiting backstage, watching all the other dancers fuss about, when she saw Lan practicing a particularly difficult sword-fighting sequence. Jin had been delighted and never one to be shy, immediately asked the girl to show her more moves. They had become good friends ever since.

“What are you doing here?” Jin hissed. “You know Miss Itani hates it when strangers come backstage.”

“Relax. I’m only here to wish you good luck on your first show,” Lan said. She moved away from the curtain, stood behind Jin and examined herself in the mirror. With her high-bridged nose and deep-set eyes, she was exceptionally beautiful and wore her ratty smock with an understated elegance that Jin would never have been able to pull off.

Upon seeing the expression on Jin’s face, Lan frowned. “What’s wrong? You’re looking a little green.”

“I’m just really nervous,” Jin mumbled.

“You, nervous? That’s a first. I didn’t even think you were capable of being self-conscious.”

“It’s just that you know how Miss Itani is. If I screw up, I’m sure she’ll never forgive me and kick me out.”

“You’re not going to screw this up. You must have practiced the moves a thousand times by now, right?”

“I mean…yeah. But never in front of so many people.”

“When you get on the stage you won’t even notice them anymore. Trust me.”

“I know…but what if I forget the steps? Or trip on my ribbon? Or crash into another dancer? Or—‘’

“Relax,” Lan said. She placed her hands on Jin’s shoulders and gave them a re-assuring squeeze. “You’re going to be amazing. I’ve seen you during the practice run. You were fantastic!”

Jin pouted. “You’re my friend. You’re obligated to say that.”

Lan clucked her tongue. “Jin, what did I tell you before?”

“That as a theater actress you morally obligated to give your honest opinion about a performer.”

“Exactly,” Lan said. Indeed, Lan was of the belief that performers had to be honest with each other—it was the only way to improve their craft. When she finally started playing parts, Lan had made Jin swear to give only her truthful opinion about Lan’s performance.

“Now stop worrying. You’re gonna be great,” Lan said. She inclined her head towards the curtain. “And you’ve got quite a crowd back there.”

“Are there really a lot of people?” Jin fretfully asked.

“A full house!” Lan squealed, missing the terrified look on Jin’s face. “And a lot of them came to see you.”

“You’re joking.”

“No, really. Come!” Lan said, grabbing Jin’s wrist and dragging her to the front curtain. She made a small opening and through the slit, she and Jin quietly peered at the crowd. On the platform, a few stagehands were making preparations for the opening performance, titled “Heavenly Lady Scatters Flowers.”

“See that area over there to the left? Your mom told me that she reserved all those spots for your guests. And it’s completely filled up!” Lan whispered.

Jin looked to the left where she found several familiar faces. Like most Earth Kingdom theaters, Ruifang was built around a rectangular space open to the sky, with timber structures on three sides; the fourth side formed the stage which was completely bare save for a curtain. The seating area was very much like an outdoor café. The men and women sat at tables in the open square, eating, drinking and quietly talking throughout the performance.

Her grandfather, because he was the oldest, was sitting at the front. Next to him was Shun, her mother and the gaggle of housewives she called friends. Surrounding them were a few neighbors and some friends from school.

“Oh, Qiu came as well!” Jin said, recognizing her friend’s dark, spiky hair. Qiu belonged in the same theater troupe as Lan. A gifted painter, he worked in her grandfather’s printing shop as their artist and was also responsible for making the backdrops of the theater troupe’s plays. “I thought he had an order to finish.”

“Your grandpa allowed him to play hooky. It’s not every day you can get a free ticket to Itani’s shows,” Lan said. Dancers were allowed to invite around five people if they were performing. Jin’s mother managed to get away with inviting an entire village because Itani and Sachi had become good friends over the years.

“Oh man.”

“Why?”

“Qiu is an even worse critic than you.”

The two of them looked at each other and giggled.

“Don’t worry. I told him to be nice. Looks like Beom-pal isn’t here,” Lan said, referring to her best friend and fellow Order initiate Beom-pal. “Shame. I was going to guilt him into to treating us to drinks afterwards.”

“Yeah, they have some big party tonight with the Director of Public Works.” He had sent her a message the other day. She was a little disappointed that Beom-pal couldn’t come since he was one of the few people who she didn’t mind seeing the show. They had known each other for so long that she felt completely at ease with him—even if she turned out to be a total disaster tonight, Jin knew that she wouldn’t even be the least bit self-conscious that Beom-pal was there to witness her failure.

“Will your Uncle Seiji be coming?” Lan said, a small, coquettish look on her face.

“Ugh, Lan, please. Don’t make me retch on the stage,” Jin groaned.

“What? Your uncle is pretty handsome.”

“He’s also around twenty years older than you,” Jin flatly said.

“Who doesn’t like an older man? And have you seen his tattoos? _Swoon_.”

“Ew. Please, stop.”

Lan, as always, ignored her completely and turned her attention back to the crowd.

“Ooohh…who’s that? Is he your friend?” Lan said, giggling as she pointed at a tall boy sitting at one corner with two other people.

“Oh, that’s Jet,” Jin said, feeling even more anxious. Longshot had said that they would come but she actually never thought they would follow through on their promise!

“Jet? Such a cool name,” Lan swooned. “He’s cute. Are you two dating?”

“Nope.”

“Interested in him?”

“No.”

“So, he’s fair game, then? You have to introduce me to him afterwards!” Lan said as she gave Jin’s arm an insistent tug.

“Alright but I have to warn you…he’s a bit of a troublemaker.”

Lan gave her a mischievous grin. “Just how I like them then.”

“Spirits, you’re impossible,” Jin giggled.

“Holy Shu!”

“What?”

“A guy with a giant, ugly scar just showed up.”

Jin paled, not even finding it in her to scold Lan for her rather callous remark. Lee had arrived with Mushi and the moment he saw Jet, the two of them were immediately locked in a heated staring contest. Jin hadn’t really thought about the consequences of her mother inviting both Longshot and Mushi. Lee didn’t seem like the sort to show up to these things so she figured that even if Longshot and his friends really did come, there was no danger of Lee and Jet running into each other.

“Is he also a friend of yours?”

“I….guess?”

“You guess?”

“I don’t know him all that well. He’s more of a mutual acquaintance. I met him through my grandfather. His uncle and gramps play Pai Sho together.”

“What happened to his face?”

“I don’t know.”

“You didn’t ask him?”

“It never came up.” In truth, where Lee got his scar and the scar itself never registered as anything significant to Jin and so, she didn’t really spend any time dwelling on it.

“Such a shame. He would’ve been real handsome if he didn’t have it.”

“I still think he’s handsome,” Jin sincerely said.

Lan gave her a skeptical look. “Sure.”

“It’s true,” Jin insisted. “He has kind eyes.”

 _When he wasn’t frowning,_ she silently added to herself.

“Oh well. Different strokes for different folks.”

They continued to look around some more, trying to catch a glimpse of who else might be there. Jin was just about to tell Lan that maybe they should go back when Lan suddenly started shaking her.

“Oh god. They’re fighting! Why is the guy with the scar fighting with Jet?” Lan said. Jet and Lee were at each other’s faces now, locked in what seemed like a particularly angry confrontation. Jin’s eyes widened in alarm.

What did Jet do now? She hoped he was being prudent and wasn’t loudly spewing nonsense about the war and firebenders. In a crowd like this, there was no telling who would be potential informants. If he wasn’t careful, he would get not only himself but also Lee and his uncle into trouble.

“Lan, can you tell the other dancers that I’ll be back shortly? I just have to—‘’

“What exactly are you doing there, Miss Kar-Wai?” a cool voice demanded.

Jin jumped and turned to find Itani glaring at them, arms folded. She turned her gaze to Lan who shrank back in embarrassment. “And what is _she_ doing here? You know the rules. No strangers backstage.”

Lan attempted to speak. “I was just—‘’

“ _Out_ ,” Itani said, raising one pale and elegant hand to the door. Lan gave an apologetic bow as she scurried off. Jin attempted to follow her but Itani grabbed her elbow.

“And just where are you going young lady?” Itani demanded.

“I need to tell my mother something. I’ll just go down real quick—‘’

“Absolutely _not_!” Itani said, saying the word “not” as if she was the Queen of Ba Sing Se. Even though she had been living in the Lower Ring for nearly all her life, she still retained her posh accent “You haven’t even finished doing your hair yet.”

“Yes, but—‘’

“Now, Jin, I know you might be nervous because it’s your first performance,” Itani said in soothing tones. “But you needn’t worry. The jitters will go away as you perform. There’s no need for you to go to your mother for re-assurance like some child.”

“But Miss Itani—‘’

“Jin Kar-Wai,” Itani said, raising one immaculately plucked eyebrow. “This is your first performance. A dancer’s first performance is a momentous event that requires _focus_. You must think of nothing else. You must empty your mind and put all your energies into your movements. Such must be your devotion to the art.”

“I know—‘’

“And furthermore, it is imperative that you perform exceptionally well today. I just received word that Chancellor Yang Ming has decided to see our show. Can you imagine? He, the pre-eminent and foremost expert of theater history in Ba Sing Se, has bought a ticket for our show. This is our chance to showcase the Suzhou dance as the most superior. We must show him that we can do as well, no even better, than those upstarts and fakes in the Middle and Upper Rings.”

“But Miss Itani, I really, really need to go down there. It’s important,” Jin said in a pleading voice.

Itani ignored her completely.

“Come along now,” Itani said in an imperious voice. “I’ll help you fix your hair and we can do some breathing exercises to help calm your nerves.”

Itani pulled her away, leaving Jin with a parting view of Jet and Lee looking as if they were about to start a brawl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Dan" refers to female roles in Chinese opera. Lanfang was really One of the Four Great Dan of China so Itani's dad is a fictionalized version of him. "Gong mo" is ribbon/silk dancing. There's a specific reason why I chose it for Jin's specialty so just take note of it. 
> 
> So, for those who read the original version of this fic, you all know what happens to Jet. Well, on re-watch I've become very fond of Jet so his arc here might have a different trajectory. 
> 
> Comments are once again greatly appreciated!


	7. Bad Elements

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Zuko learns a lot of terrible things about Ba Sing Se.

Zuko glared at Jet, willing every bone in his entire body not to surge forward and punch the boy on his stupid face.

“Shut up,” Zuko hissed. He had been content to keep a wide berth but Jet had loudly made insinuations about his uncle magically heating his tea back at the docks. He would have ignored such a comment were it not for the implied threat behind Jet’s words. “Shut up right now or—‘’

“Or what? You’ll _firebend_ at me?” Jet goaded, making no effort to keep his voice low.

Behind Jet, Smellerbee was tugging at his arm, making frantic pleas for him to stop. His uncle was very much the same, his hand curled around Zuko’s shoulder in an iron grip. All around them, the murmurs rose. They were beginning to attract attention now—everyone had stopped eating and drinking and were gaping at them with interest. Even Leung and Sachi, who had previously been engaged in what seemed like an absorbing conversation, were standing up and looking at Jet and Zuko in concern.

Zuko paled, completely alarmed. Did anyone hear what Jet had just said? He opened his mouth, ready to deny everything when a rugged-looking man suddenly stepped between them and said, “Any problem here, lads?”

The two of them turned to the side and examined their new companion. He was of average height with dark eyes and a rough stubble. Between his lips was a clay pipe that gave off a rather pleasant, sweet smell. Instead of the standard Ba Sing Se queue, half of his wild, choppy hair was haphazardly tied in a topknot, leaving the rest to roughly brush against his shoulders. Although he had the distinct look of squalor that most of the Lower Ring citizens sported, there was something about the solidness of his figure that commanded immediate respect. He stood next to a taller, hardier man wearing a jeonbok.

Before either Jet or Zuko could respond, Shun cried out, “Uncle Seiji! Uncle Seiji!”*

The boy darted forward as Seiji crouched down and held his hands up.

“Look alive uncle!” Shun yelled, bounding up and immediately raising his fists in a defensive fighting position. He started to punch his uncle’s open hands as Seiji teasingly avoided all of his nephew’s attempts.

“Bam! Bam! Bam!” Shun cried whenever his tiny fists collided with his uncle’s hands.

Their mock fight ended when Seiji placed Shun into a headlock and playfully rubbed his nephew’s head.

“Shun! Look at you. You’re shooting up like a bamboo sprout. It seems like you’ve become even taller since I last saw you,” Seiji said.

“I already mastered my first earthbending _kata_ ,” Shun excitedly said. “Gramps even said that I had real talent! I could show you sometime.”

“I would like that,” Seiji said, giving Shun a fond smile.

“Seiji!” Sachi crossly interjected. “Why do you have that thing with you?”

Seiji tried to hide his pipe but in three quick strides, Sachi was upon him. She snatched the pipe from her brother, grabbed his left ear and twisted it. Zuko was instantly reminded of the afternoon he spent with Jin, running away from those thugs. She had twisted her own brother’s ear then—it seemed as if it was a favorite move between mother and daughter.

“Ow…ow…hey easy there sis!” Seiji yelped.

“You told me you had stopped smoking,” Sachi frowned.

“It’s been a stressful day,” Seiji defensively said.

“Well, get this away from Shun! I don’t want him picking up on any of your terrible habits,” Sachi said.

Leung snorted and said, “Heh. Fat chance of that. Seiji has already gotten your daughter into mahjong. Shun learning how to smoke is the least of your problems.”

Sachi gave an indignant look but before she could reproach her brother any further, Seiji cut her off.

“Father,” he hastily said, giving Leung a deep bow.

“It’s good to see you, Seiji,” Leung acknowledged, returning his bow with a small nod of his head.

“Jie Jie**...are you going to continue to be angry with me in front of all these strangers?” Seiji whined.

“Only if you insist on being a lout who keeps getting my children into your no-good vices!” Sachi shot back. She glared at Seiji for the briefest of moments before breaking out into a wide smile and wrapping him in a hug. When Seiji disentangled himself from Sachi, the two of them immediately started to babble in one of the Eastern dialects. Zuko himself had a good grasp of the language. From what he gathered, Sachi was surprised that Seiji had come but was nonetheless, very pleased.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m being so rude. I haven’t introduced you yet, have I?” Sachi said, switching back to the official Earth Kingdom language. She placed a hand on Seiji’s shoulder and smiled. “Seiji, this is Mushi and Lee. Mushi, Lee, this is my younger brother Seiji.”

Seiji gave a very deep bow and said, "It is such a great honor to finally meet you, sir."

"Likewise, I've heard very interesting things about you Seiji," Uncle Iroh said, giving a shallow bow and motioning for Seiji not to be so formal.

"All good I hope, sir?" Seiji asked, smirking a little.

"Oh, yes," Uncle Iroh genially said. 

“Dal-moon, a family friend,” Sachi said, motioning to the other man.

Dal-moon also gave a deep bow to Uncle Iroh. “It is an honor to see you again, sir.”

His uncle nodded. “Likewise, Dal-moon.”

“You all know each other?” Zuko asked.

Dal-moon, Seiji and his uncle all exchanged a look.

“We play Pai Sho together,” his uncle finally supplied, a secretive smile on his lips.

Seiji turned to look at Zuko and upon seeing the younger man fully for the first time, his eyes widened in horror at Zuko’s scar. To his credit, unlike Dal-moon, he managed to hide the expression on his face quickly enough. 

“Now, what were you two boys about to be getting at, hm?” Seiji sternly demanded, trying to keep an outward veneer of disinterest at Zuko’s scar. “Whatever it was, I want you two to drop it _now_. I don’t want any sort of commotion disrupting my niece’s first show.”

“Indeed,” Uncle Iroh said. He smiled at Zuko and gave his nephew a significant look. “Perhaps a short walk is in order to cool tempers down?”

“We do need some food and we haven’t gone to the counter to order yet,” Dal-moon said.

“I’ll go and get us something to eat,” Zuko gruffly muttered, immediately picking up on Dal-moon’s suggestion for him to volunteer.

He truly didn’t want to cause any trouble; he was just alarmed at Jet’s accusations. He had an inkling that Jet suspected something but he never imagined that the other boy would be so brazen in his assertions. Nobody in the Lower Ring so much as uttered the word “war” or “firebending,” even in passing, and so, he was complacent that however suspicious Jet might be, he wouldn’t dare confront Zuko so openly.

His uncle nodded and as he walked away, he heard Seiji say, “What was all that about? This isn’t some sort of gang fight, is it?”

“No,” Jet replied. Zuko stilled, mid-walk. “I was confronting Lee because he’s—‘’

Before Jet could continue, Smellerbee pinched his side and answered for him, “—he cheated Jet in a game of cards. Lee managed to swindle thirty silvers from us.”

Zuko breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that at least one person in Jet’s gang was reasonable. He walked towards the counter where a thickset woman was taking orders. He bought a bottle of baijiu, a cup of tea and an entire platter of _cong you bing_ which were deep-fried pancake scallions. He asked the woman to divide the pancakes into two plates and when she told him that it would take five minutes to fry them up, he decided to walk the entire perimeter of the theater to calm himself.

The theater was very…crude. There was no seating arrangement and it appalled him to see that people were eating, drinking and talking. Did they mean to do so throughout the entire performance? Back in the Fire Nation, food wasn’t allowed inside theaters—it was considered the height of rudeness to do anything but give the performers your full attention. The Earth Kingdom was truly odd.

When he came back with the food, Seiji waved and gestured at the spot next to him. “Lee! Come, sit here.”

On seeing that Jet was also there, Zuko hesitated. He didn’t want to escalate whatever issues they had with each other any further. Aside from the fact that he’d rather not draw attention to himself, he also didn’t want to ruin Jin’s performance. As much as she liked to downplay her dancing, Zuko gathered that this was something of a big deal for her.

He was about to politely decline when he saw that Uncle Iroh had positioned himself with Sachi and her friends. His uncle, as expected, had already charmed every female within his vicinity. Sachi’s friends were giggling at something he said and one or two of them would even “accidentally” brush against his sleeve. This left Zuko with no one else for company but Leung, who was silently reading the program card and Shun, who was looking at him far too eagerly for his liking. Not wanting to spend the rest of the evening listening to the ceaseless nattering of a five-year-old, Zuko sighed and gave a resigned nod of his head.

Jet looked displeased but Seiji immediately gave him a warning glance.

“No trouble, boys,” he firmly said as he blew out a ring of smoke. It seemed that he had managed to get the pipe back from his sister. “You’re not children any more. If you have any quarrel with each other, you can resolve it without resorting to a fistfight.”

Jet’s mouth stretched into a big smile, although it didn’t seem entirely genuine.

“Don’t worry, sir. We’ll behave.” He looked up and met Zuko’s eyes with a challenging stare. “Won’t we, Lee?”

“Right,” Zuko said through gritted teeth. He handed over some of the food to his uncle before returning to Seiji’s table and taking the empty spot next to him.

Aside from Jet and his friends, there was a gangly, spiky-haired boy who introduced himself as Qiu. Next to him was a beautiful girl with wavy hair that fell just above her shoulders named Lan. She was flirting shamelessly with Jet, who easily returned all her advances with witty banter. Zuko would have probably been uncomfortable if not for the fact that Lan’s presence seemed to at least draw Jet’s attention away from him.

The table’s lively conversation was bolstered by the alcohol. Jet, as Zuko already knew, was a good drinker and Dal-moon was as well. The two of them however, were no match for Seiji. The man drank down whatever was poured for him as if it were mere water. After half an hour, their table had already consumed two bottles and were well on their way to finishing a third.

Of all Jet’s friends, Longshot was the most amendable. He and Zuko struck up a sort of kinship, despite not exchanging a single word with each other. Whenever his cup emptied, Zuko noticed that Longshot was always the first to reach out and pour him a new serving. Maybe it was because like Longshot, Zuko hated small talk. He remained quiet, speaking only when he was directly addressed. Seiji seemed to sense that Zuko and Longshot weren’t big on talking because while he was careful to always make sure that they were included in the conversation, he never pushed the two boys to participate. For that, Zuko was grateful and found himself actually liking the older man.

“How many numbers is Jin dancing in?” Jet asked.

“Just one. She’s doing ‘Flower Drum, Flower Lanterns,’” Lan said.

“Itani told me she picked Jin specifically for this number. Apparently, it suits her perfectly,” Seiji added. “I wonder if Itani will place her in the back or in the front. I hope it’s the front. I didn’t come all the way from the Outer Wall only to catch a few glimpses of Jin.”

“The front, for sure. Itani likes to place the best-looking ones on full display. And we all know that Jin’s grown up into quite the looker,” Qiu said.

“Hey, watch your mouth,” Seiji coolly said. “I don’t like that tone of yours. I’ll not tolerate any talk like _that_ about my niece.”

Dal-moon gave a short laugh. “Careful there, Qiu. Seiji over here is a very protective uncle.”

“Relax. It was just a general observation,” Qiu hastily said. “I was just thinking that it’s a good thing that she’s got her mother’s looks.”

“It’s the easterner in her,” Dal-moon said. “You know what they say about eastern women.”***

“Yes. I’ve heard that the women in the eastern provinces are the most beautiful, second only to the girls of Ba Sing Se,” Jet said.

“And I suppose it’s true,” Qiu shrugged. “One only has to look at Miss Itani and Mrs. Sachi.”

Seiji scowled, although his voice lacked any real bite. “So, it’s not enough for you to hit on my niece, but also my sister as well?”

“Sir! I would never,” Qiu said in an exaggerated voice. He pretended to look hurt. “We were just stating facts about the eastern women’s reputation for beauty. Although…I guess good looks unfortunately don’t extend to Eastern _men_ , Mr. Seiji.”

At this everyone, burst into laughter and even Zuko found himself chuckling.

Seiji smirked at him and wagged a finger at Qiu. “You’re really looking for a beating, aren’t you boy?”

“Just making a general observation,” Qiu shrugged.

“Besides, I think your complaining is all gas, sir,” Lan interjected.

“Why so, Lan?” Seiji asked.

“Because I think you’re actually happy to have so beautiful a niece. It’s a boon to have a family member with looks like hers. If you play your cards right, you could secure an advantageous match. A girl like Jin can get you and your family as far as the Middle…no even the Upper Ring,” Lan excitedly said.

“What? Is that your plan, Lan? Using your looks to marry well?” Jet said as he playfully elbowed her.

Lan didn’t look the least bit self-conscious. “Why not? University is okay and all but school never did me any good and going there isn’t going to guarantee me a good job. You know how hard it is to get anywhere when you’re from the Lower Ring. Marrying some rich, old codger is easier. As long as it makes my family’s life better, then I see no issue with it.”

Zuko frowned, surprised at how they talked about arranging marriages as if it were an ordinary business transaction. And they were all commoners too! In the Fire Nation, arranged marriages had gone out of style and marrying for love had become prevalent. The only one who practiced arranged marriages were the royal family and a few members of the aristocracy but even then, that was rare.****

“I’ve heard Itani has taken an interest in being the _mei po_ for any potential matchmaking involving Jin,” Qiu said.

“Why are you asking?” Lan teased. “Interested in putting your name on the list?”

“Nah. I already have a girlfriend, remember?” Qiu said in a calm voice. His lips suddenly quirked into a mischievous grin. “And anyway, even if I do sign myself up, I doubt that I’ll even reach Itani’s standards.”

“Itani?” Jet said. “This is the millionth time you’ve all mentioned her. Who’s she?”

“She’s Jin’s dance instructor. Although with the way she acts, you would think that she’s actually the most Honorable Imperial Noble Consort of the Earth King,” Seiji said, switching to an exaggerated, posh accent for the last few words.

Another round of laughter rippled throughout the group.

“That Itani,” Dal-moon said, shaking her head. “Sometimes I think that she’s the only one in this entire shithole who hasn’t gotten the memo that we’re living in the Lower Ring.”

“Her standards are impossible,” Seiji agreed.

“At least she’s stopped harassing you to get married Seiji and started focusing on Jin,” Dal-moon chuckled.

“True. That’s one good thing about this whole mess,” Seiji mumbled. He took a sip from his cup and looked distinctly weary of the topic. “I don’t know why Sachi is even indulging her interference. Titles, education, rank…we don’t care about those things. If it were up to us, as long as Jin ends up marrying someone honest and kind, then that would be enough.”

“But honesty and kindness doesn’t pay the rent,” Lan pointed out. She leaned back and gave a long-suffering sigh. “If only Itani showed any interest in being my future mei po. She’s a lion-shark in the negotiations table. I could use someone like her in my corner.”

“Trust me Lan, you wouldn’t,” Seiji said. “The woman is _obsessed_. She’s being far too enthusiastic for my liking. Especially since there won’t be any matchmaking. Not for a _very, very l_ ong time.”

“Why not?” Qiu asked, surprised. “Jin’s sixteen. That’s marriageable age.”

Lan rolled her eyes at him. “Boys.”

“What?” Qiu said, shooting her a defensive look. “A while ago you were just saying you wouldn’t mind going through an arranged marriage.”

“Yeah, but not right now. Not every girl wants to get married at sixteen,” Lan shot back. She raised a brow at him as she held her hand up and examined her cuticles. “Besides marrying young is going out of style these days. If I’m gonna be shipped off to an old codger, I want to make sure that by the time I’m shackled to him, I’ve already enjoyed all my youth.”

“It’s not just that,” Seiji said. “Jin has plans to go to university. She’s going to study Political Science. It wouldn’t do to have a husband while she’s still in the middle of schooling.”

“University? Whoa…I always knew that she was a bit of a nerd but man. _University_. Could she even do it?” Qiu asked. He looked thoroughly astounded, as though the very idea itself was impossible. Despite the fact that he hardly knew her, Zuko felt oddly offended in Jin’s behalf.

“Why shouldn’t she be able to do it?” Smellerbee demanded, speaking up for the first time. “Jin seems pretty smart.”

“Because she’s from the Lower Ring,” Dal-moon simply said. “Also, she’s a girl.”

“And don’t forget about um…what happened to her dad,” Qiu added. At this, a tense, awkward silence ensued—everyone suddenly became absorbed with the food and drink and nobody spoke for a very long time.

“Lots of people who are sons and daughters of…Huaifenzi have gotten in,” Lan finally said.*****

“Huaifenzi?” Zuko said, confused. He understood the literal meaning (“bad element”) of the word of course, but he had trouble grasping why Lan said the word as if the very thought of it brought chills across her spine.

“I keep forgetting that you guys are new here. Yes. Huaifenzi. Bad elements. They’re what Long Feng calls people who… cause trouble,” Lan said. She looked from Zuko to Jet and all of his companions. “You guys know what happened to Jin’s dad, right?”

Zuko, Jet and all his friends nodded. 

“Yeah. Jin told us,” Jet said.

“The government keeps detailed records of everyone. If you have a relative who’s a Huaifenzi, it’s going to appear in your dossier and make it harder for you to get any sort of job in the government,” Lan said. As she spoke, her voice grew steadily fainter with every word.

Zuko curled his fists as he felt a spike of anger burst through him. This place was proving itself to be more and more terrible. Hiding the war and punishing citizens for simply speaking what they know to be true was appalling in and of itself. But to extend the punishment to family members who didn’t have anything to do with the infraction (which wasn’t even a reasonable infraction in the first place)…that was the height of injustice. It made his blood boil. The government was supposed to protect its people; it was the supreme father who ensured the safety and well-being of its citizens. And yet, here in Ba Sing Se, the Earth King and his Dai Li were the very enemies of the people’s personal safety and privacy.

This was why they needed the Fire Nation. If father had control over the city, he would never have allowed anything like this to happen.

“And anyway…it shouldn’t be a problem because the family has been completely rehabilitated. I mean…you all drew the line, right?” Lan addressed Seiji. She looked oddly awkward about it.

The expression on Seiji’s face was indecipherable. He didn’t say anything for a long time.

“Yes…we’ve all drawn the line,” he finally said.

“Draw the line?” Jet said. He gave Seiji a wary look. “What does that mean?”

“A formal and public denunciation,” Dal-moon answered. “To the draw the line is to completely disassociate yourself from a Huaifenzi. It’s why Sachi and everyone in the family, even Leung, is taking her maiden name now in all the official documents.”******

“We had no choice!” Seiji blurted out. He sounded extremely defensive. “It was for Jin and Shun’s sake! I would never have signed that document and made that denunciation. _Never_. Yeung Hsin was like a big brother to me. And Sachi loved him with all her heart and would have stood by him no matter what. But if we didn’t do it then that would be condemning Jin and Shun to having no future. Neither of them would be able to get any respectable jobs or education. They might not even be able to get married. There was nothing we could do.”

“No one is blaming you, sir,” Qiu soothingly said. He looked a little shame-faced. “We all drew the line.”

“And if it happened to any of us…we would have done the same thing,” Lan mumbled. “You shouldn’t worry. Uncle Yeung Hsin would have understood. He wouldn’t have seen it as a betrayal.”

“Yes. There’s no shame in thinking about the future of your family,” Zuko added. He hardly blamed Seiji. He understood well enough that sometimes, you had to turn your back on people to save your own skin. When Zuko was banished, every aristocratic family in the Fire Nation had turned away from him. Even Mai and Ty Lee were forced to do so. He didn’t blame them—to refuse was to go against the Fire Lord’s will itself.

“But it will still be difficult,” Qiu sadly said. “Even when you’re rehabilitated, I’ve heard that it will still come up in your file. The stigma is so strong that sometimes, it could extend to cousins nine times removed.”

“It’s not so bad. The Dean of Ba Sing Se University is sympathetic at least. He isn’t as strict about screening the family backgrounds of applicants. As long as Jin does well and the corruption is kept to a minimum, I think she can get a place there,” Dal-moon said.

“I know but…she’s studying Political Science so that must mean she has plans to enter civil service, right? The University Dean may be nice but Long Feng and his lackey Lin Biao head the Civil Service Examinations. There is no way they would let the daughter of a Huaifenzi enter. Is it wise for Jin to even waste time trying?” Qiu asked.

“Well, why not? Stupider people have gotten into the University,” Seiji shrugged. “And anyway, if she fails, there are other colleges in the city.”

“That’s right. Just because failure is inevitable does not mean that one should just stop trying,” Zuko said. Before he could stop, he found himself quoting one of the passages that he had learned by heart in his princely lessons. “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

“Kong Qiu, _The Analects_ ,” Dal-moon said, recognizing the quote. He looked at Zuko, impressed.

“What?” Qiu said, his face blank.

“Kong Qiu, the Earth Kingdom’s most accomplished philosopher and politician,” Seiji explained. He jokingly elbowed Dal-moon between the ribs and chuckled. “Dal-moon over here fancies himself as a bit of a philosopher.”

“We all need to fill our time somehow,” Dal-moon shrugged.

“That’s a nice quote,” Smellerbee thoughtfully said. “And somehow…I think it fits Jin. She can be annoyingly persistent.”

“Yes. She’s very strong-willed,” Seiji said. A soft, sad look suddenly crossed his face. “Just like her old man.”

The tense silence that had permeated the air at the mention of Jin’s father returned.

Just when Zuko thought that the conversation would finally die for good, Seiji suddenly spoke up, furious. “What they did…what they did to Yueng Hsin was wrong. They did him so dirty—‘’

“Seiji,” Dal-moon urgently said.

“—after all he’s done for this city…this is how they repay him. He put his life on the line when the…you-know-what happened for six hundred days. And instead of showing him gratitude, they go and kill him, only for speaking up for what is right—‘’

“Seiji! Not so loud” Dal-moon barked. He jerked his head towards Jet and his friends.

Smellerbee noticed his look and hastily said, “We’re not informants. We swear. We want to avoid the Dai Li as much as you do.”

Seiji and everyone else except for Jet and his friends looked skeptical.

“I swear on my mother and father. We won’t report anything to the Dai Li,” Jet said. He shifted in his place and looked at Seiji directly in the eye. “And I don’t see you being as suspicious towards Lee over here. Even though there should be _greater reason_ for us to be wary of him.”

Zuko glared at Jet and defensively said, “I won’t—‘’

“Lee can be trusted,” Dal-moon said, cutting Zuko off. “I know his uncle.”

Jet sneered. “You know he can be trusted simply because you and his uncle are Pai Sho buddies?”

“Yes,” Dal-moon simply said. He gave Jet a pointed look. “You on the other hand…are a complete stranger. I am sorry if I am being too suspicious. But it is nothing personal. We all can never be too careful.”

Jet sighed, resigned. “We’re not here to tell on anyone. _Believe me_. Look…we don’t like the Policy as much as you do. It pains me to act as if nothing happened. To deny the war is to spit in the face of all that the Fire Nation has put me through.”

Zuko stiffened. He didn’t like the direction of where this conversation was heading. Suddenly, he thought of Song and the story of how the Fire Nation burned her legs and took her father away. He thought of Lee and his brother Sensu. He thought of the pained, squeezing sensation he felt in his chest when they spoke to him about it. The stories of the Fire Nation’s supposed cruelty bothered him, long after he had met and parted ways with them. They niggled at the back of his mind like a wasp.

He looked away, wondering if he could excuse himself. He couldn’t bear to go through the discomfort of hearing yet another sad tale of woe involving the Fire Nation.

“You’re a refugee too, kid?” Seiji asked.

“Yes,” Jet said. “From a village in Zhang Jia Jie Forest.”

Dal-moon nodded. “Thought so. You and your friend over there sounded like you were from the midlands.”

“Me and Dal-moon were refugees too,” Seiji said. “I think you already know I’m from the eastern provinces.”

“Suzhou?” Jet asked.

“No. Shantung. The island city. Dal-moon over here is from the Joseon area,” Seiji said, jerking a thumb at Dal-moon.

“You say you were from a village? Don’t tell me they’re attacking even villages now?” Lan said, addressing Jet. “My father told me they only colonize big cities and just demand tribute from small villages.”

  
“Just because we’re not worth colonizing doesn’t mean we’re not worth killing,” Jet darkly said. “It’s true, our village was small. It was so small that…”

“When someone cooked beef stew in one house, you could smell it all across the entire village,” Smellerbee wistfully interjected. She exchanged a look with Longshot who had a rare smile on his face, his eyes soft as if he could smell the beef stew this very instant.

“Yeah. But even then, they couldn’t leave us well enough alone. Colonel Mongke…he’s this psychotic firebender who leads these band of fighters that each specialize in a different weapon. He attacked our village, rounded everyone up in one of the barns, locked us up and… _burned it.”_

That was wrong. It was not honorable. Villages like Jet did not have a formal military—it was not a glorious battle but a cruel slaughter. These thoughts flitted across Zuko’s mind before he could stop them. As was his practice, Zuko immediately quashed them and scolded himself for thinking such traitor thoughts. By then, he had grown into the habit of self-criticism and automatically blamed himself for any instincts that went against the Fire Nation. In truth, such feelings frightened him. It was out of the question to discuss them with anyone. He sternly told himself that he must suppress such thoughts and acquire the correct way of thinking.

“Shit, man,” Qiu whispered.

Everyone looked at Jet as they intently waited for what he was going to say next.

When it seemed like Jet wouldn’t say anything further, Longshot tilted his head to the side. Zuko sensed that he was saying something with the expression on his face but couldn’t for the life of him, decipher it. Finally, Smellerbee spoke up for Longshot, “Jet’s dad did everything he could to get us out of the barn. We and a few other kids got out but…he didn’t make it.”

“I’m so sorry kid,” Seiji sincerely said. He reached over and clapped Jet on the shoulder.

“Your dad sounded really brave,” Qiu said.

“Yeah. He seems like a real hero,” Lan said as she grabbed Jet’s hand and squeezed it. She looked up, distressed. “I can’t believe that they can be so evil.”

“Oh, you better believe it. They’re _brutal_ ,” Seiji darkly said. “I could never forget when they conquered Shantung. It was the most painful day of my life. They killed anyone they saw on the streets…women, children…the elderly. It was a miracle my family got out of there. And the tactics they used in the battle! I heard that they grabbed prisoners, placed them in Fire Nation uniforms and put them on the front line.”

Zuko looked down at his cup, feeling oddly ashamed to face Seiji.

“How old were you when they took over?” Jet asked. His voice was controlled but Zuko could feel Jet’s anger roiling beneath the surface of his calm exterior.

“Eight. My sister was just eighteen and my brother twenty-three.”

“You have a brother?”

“An older one, yes. His name was Shunji. He’s not here right now,” Seiji sadly said. He looked away, towards the direction of the Inner Wall. “On our way to Ba Sing Se, we ran into some trouble. Shunji defended us and he became separated from the rest of the family.”

“Were you ever able to find him?” Smellerbee asked.

Seiji shook his head. “No. Since we got here, we put up an ad every week, saying we’re looking for him and that we could be found in this address. But no one has ever answered it.”

Jet drew his brows together. “So, do you think he’s…”

“Sachi doesn’t. And my poor mother and father, before they died, kept believing until the very end that he was out there somewhere.” He scrubbed a weary hand across his face. “We haven’t put his tablet on the ancestral shrine yet. Sachi forbids it. And every year, during the Qing Ming Festival, she refuses to pray for him. Why pray when we don’t even know he’s dead, she says.”

“But what about you?” Jet asked. “What do you think?”

“A part of me believes he’s dead. If he had made it here to the city, someone would have answered our ads by now. But still…one can’t help but hope,” Seiji morosely said. He grabbed his cup and took a deep, long drink.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” Zuko sincerely said. He didn’t mean to speak but the words just came out.

“Thank you, Lee. Still…what we went through in Shantung is nothing compared to the Siege,” Seiji said, dropping his voice to a whisper at the word “siege.”

“Tell me about it,” Dal-moon said.

“You guys served in the Siege?” Jet asked, awed.

“ _Shhhh_!” Dal-moon and Seiji hissed.

“Don’t say the word out loud,” Qiu said as he uneasily looked about.

“Sorry,” Jet quickly amended. “You guys served?”

“Not like we had a choice, kid,” Seiji scoffed. “When the you-know-what happened, the Earth Kingdom needed to muster up an army. An attack of that scale was not enough for the city’s formal military. So, they did mandatory conscription. When it happened, everyone in the Lower Ring was drafted into service.”

“Only the Lower Ring? But what about those in the Middle and Upper Rings?” Smellerbee asked.

“Long Feng imposed a war tax. If you could pay it, you could delay service. Of course, no one here in the Lower Ring actually had that kind of money to give away,” Dal-moon grumbled.

“And even though everyone in the Lower Ring were the ones pawned off to be slaughtered by the Fire Nation, they never even bothered to show any appreciation for us after the Siege. I mean, I’m not even asking for a medal or something. A pay hike would have been nice,” Seiji added.

Zuko scowled. Even more proof that the Earth King was a dishonorable fool. He was a coward who abandoned his own men, men who loved and defended their nation. He was nothing at all like father. Zuko felt some of his discomfort ease.

“Instead, they decided to act as if all our sacrifices didn’t happen. But what can we expect? None of those people in the Middle and Upper Rings actually served. Those fools up there had no idea what we went through,” Dal-moon said. “I lost so many friends…even my own cousin…”

“And don’t even get me started at what happened when they broke through the Wall,” Seiji said.

Dal-moon shuddered. “I know. I thought we would be goners for sure.”

“Why? What happened? I mean even if they broke through the Outer Wall…they still weren’t able to get into the city proper right?” Smellerbee asked.

“Yeah but that meant they took control over the entire Agricultural District. A good chunk of our food source was under their hands,” Dal-moon said.

“That was the worst moment. It’s a bitch to fight them but it’s a million times harder when you were hungry. There were days where my stomach would grumble so bad that even my own shit looked appetizing,” Seiji said.

Zuko thickly swallowed. He was finding it more and more unbearable to stay there and listen to them speak about his uncle and his infamous Siege. On one hand, it recalled the painful death of his cousin and made old resentments rise up. On the other hand, he could not fight the wave of sympathy that rose within him.

He silently looked at his uncle, grateful that the older man wasn’t there to hear the conversation. It would no doubt pain Uncle Iroh and put him in a dour mood. As much as he tried to affect carefreeness, Zuko knew that the Siege still haunted him.

As Seiji and Dal-moon continued to talk about the suffering they endured during the Siege, Jet remained oddly quiet. He was looking at Zuko, this time with unrestrained anger. Zuko leaned back, half-afraid that Jet would stand up and suddenly start accusing him again.

“Still…it has to be worse for the people inside the city, right? I mean…General Han Xin said they had to cut a big portion chunk of the citizens’ food rations for the army,” Dal-moon said.

“I was here when it happened,” Lan confirmed. “It was so terrifying. Everyone was so hungry that they forgot how to be afraid. There were riots everywhere.”

“Yeah,” Seiji said. “My sister told me all about it as well. People were turning on each other. Even the Dai Li couldn’t keep order.”

“I heard that even the Middle and the Upper Ring were about to collapse. I guess that was the only good thing that came out the entire thing…those bastards up there finally suffering with us,” Dal-moon said.

“You know what? Sometimes…I actually wish that the you-know-what was actually completed and they broke through the walls. Just so all those cowards in the Upper and Middle Ring can go through hell like the rest of us,” Qiu mumbled.

Lan nodded.

“Tell me about it. Sometimes, I don’t even know who I hate more. The Conehats—‘’ And at this, Lan spat on the ground. “—or those Ash Breathers.”

“Don’t ever say that,” Jet suddenly said. He gripped Lan’s wrist, an angry look in his eyes. “I’ve lived through my village being taken over. The Dai Li may be terrible…but nothing is as worse as being a conquered people.”

His eyes rose to meet Zuko’s. The anger Jet felt was clear to everyone in the group—it spilled over and infected the atmosphere like a dense fog. Zuko straightened up and tensed his muscles, readying to defend himself should Jet decide to continue the altercation.

“Hey all of you over there!” Leung suddenly said. They all turned to the other table to look at him.

“Shut up!” Leung barked. “The show is about to start.”

To Zuko’s relief, everyone became silent and focused their attention on the stage. Zuko’s initial impression of them eating and drinking throughout the show was wrong. It seemed like these Earth Kingdomers had some manners after all.

Jet himself leaned back and said nothing more although Zuko could still feel his animosity rolling off him like waves. Zuko looked away and silently prayed to Agni to cool Jet’s temper.

A slip of a woman entered the stage, knelt on the ground and raised her hands up. In a clear and powerful voice, she asked all the spirits to attend the performance. After a brief moment of silence, the drums and the gongs were beaten three times. This was followed by an invocation of praise to the Earth King, whereupon every person in the theater went on their knees and kowtowed three times to an image of his likeness. Zuko hastily followed everyone although he didn’t feel as worried about looking like a fool—Jet and his companions also didn’t know what they were doing. It seemed as if this practice was limited to Ba Sing Se.

  
After the invocation, the recital finally began.

Whoever this Itani was, it was clear that she trained her dancers well. They moved fluidly, with a grace and elegance that put even the most high-caliber performers of the Fire Nation to shame. The dancers moved in fluid, precise movements, the ribbons gently floating about them like streams of light.

As much as he wanted to fully appreciate the performance, Zuko was only half-watching. He was too busy trying to discreetly observe Jet, always on guard for any possible confrontation. He sensed that the conversation about the Fire Nation had re-ignited Jet’s anger into a roaring fire that could no longer be put out.

From behind him, Zuko heard Jet flatly say, “I want to leave.”

Smellerbee whispered back, “No. We came here to watch Jin and she isn’t on yet.”

“I just can’t stand to be in the Ash breather’s presence any longer,” Jet muttered back.

 _The feeling is mutual_ , Zuko silently said.

After about three numbers, a fast, rhythmic beat suddenly started playing. Around seven dancers moved on to the stage, holding silk ribbons the color of cherry blossoms.

“Jin’s on!” Lan excitedly said, grabbing Qiu’s arm and shaking it.

As Qiu predicted, Jin was placed in the front, at the left side. When they began to dance, Zuko finally understood why this Itani said that the number perfectly suited Jin. It was by far, the liveliest dance performance of the entire set. Gone was the slow, wistful music, the careful and controlled dance moves of the previous performances. The music was fast and the choreography was especially energetic. The spirited music, the quick footwork and the speed with which the ribbons moved gave off the distinct atmosphere of a riotous party. The combined effect was electrifying. This wasn’t just a dance. It was a celebration of life itself.

Zuko could think of no better person to dance the number than the happy and exuberant Jin—she, who laughed freely and was always delighted by whatever she saw. She moved across the stage, leaping and spinning, her eyes bright with the mischievous gleam she sported so well. She was a clear crowd favorite. Whenever she did a flip or some other particularly complicated move, everyone in the audience would cheer and yell loudly. Even Zuko found himself getting caught up in the performance; he didn’t even have time to scoff at how utterly uncouth everyone was being (in the Fire Nation cheering or clapping wasn’t allowed until after a performance was finished).

As the music reached its crescendo, a burst of faux cherry blossoms suddenly exploded from above the stage. This time, Jin couldn’t contain herself. As she gracefully spun around, ribbon swirling all around her, her mouth opened in jubilant, exultant laughter. Her spirit was infectious. Everyone else in the audience laughed and cheered along with her.

When the number was finished, the dancers all gave a short bow. Lan and Qiu stood on their feet and hollered and clapped at her. As she finished her bow, Jin saw them in the crowd and gave a small wave before running off the stage.

“That was amazing,” Lan said. “Not bad for a first performance. Looks like she didn’t need to worry after all.”

“She was great,” Zuko gruffly added. It felt like an understatement. She wasn't just great. _Jin was radiant._

Before he could give more of his own opinion, Jet abruptly stood up.

“We’re going,” Jet shortly said.

Seiji frowned at him. “Now? But the recital is not done.”

“I know,” Jet muttered. He narrowed his against Zuko. “We just have work to do.”

And without another word, he and the rest of his gang turned and walked away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So another chapter with a lots and lots of conversation but I felt it was necessary to ground Ba Sing Se and give everyone a feel of the inner workings and nuances of the city, especially with respect to the Dai Li and the Siege. Some thoughts on this chapter:
> 
> *If you notice, Jin's mother's side of the family have Japanese names. It's because I headcanon that the Eastern Region where they had come from is rather close to the Western area of the Fire Nation (which I'll based on Japan), so they have assimilated some Fire Nation cultural qualities such as names long before the War started.
> 
> **Term of address of an elder sister.
> 
> ***It's an actual stereotype in China that the women in Suzhou which is in one of the provinces of the eastern region are the most beautiful. As an old Chinese saying goes: "Be born in Hangzhou, marry in Suzhou, eat in Guangzhou, and die in Liuzhou."
> 
> ****So, I have a detailed headcanon about how marriages work in the Earth Kingdom. I read somewhere that the creators in ATLA said that arranged marriages are no longer popular in the Fire Nation except among royalty. I headcanon that in the Earth Kingdom, arranged marriages are still the norm, even among commoners because like their element, the people of the Earth Kingdom value stability and reliability over everything else. This bleeds into how they perceive relationships should work: having stability is the most important thing a couple should have in a marriage and in their family and they believe that arranged marriages provide that. Passion and love is good in the beginning but if that's the foundation, it's not going to hold up the relationship once societal pressures and other economic concerns kick in. 
> 
> Arranged marriages are not as strict as in the Water Tribe because ultimately, the parties have a say but the couple usually goes through a rigorous matchmaking process. Similar to what was done in Ancient China, a mei po or a go-between or matchmaker introduces prospective couples to each other and thoroughly screens each person's education, family background and economic status (seriously it was considered perfectly normal to hire someone to snoop on your potential bride/groom! An interesting thing I read is that one red flag that halts marriage negotiations is sadly, mental illness). Going through the matchmaking process allows the mei po to assess the compatibility between the couple and thereby ensure, stability. The people go on dates of course but eventually, when the time for marriage comes around, even love matches go through the matchmaking vetting process. This is in contrast to the Fire Nation, which like their element, values passion and so marrying for love is seen as more acceptable.
> 
> *****It was an actual term in the cultural revolution.
> 
> ******Drawing the line is sadly an actual thing that happened during the Cultural Revolution. I've read some personal accounts about family members being forced to "draw the line" and it really sucks. I think Jin's entire family grapples with a lot of guilt about making the denunciation, especially Leung. 
> 
> There you have it. I think more than anything, I wanted to have this conversation to show Zuko's doublethink, specifically how he goes through great lengths to justify the Fire Nation's imperialism. And Ba Sing Se as a whole isn't helping—it's a seriously fucked up place and it feeds into Zuko's narrative of the "Earth King is terrible and only my father can fix this place." The government is terrible and the income disparity was especially noticeable during the Siege. I have always had a headcanon that when the Siege took place, mandatory conscription was first imposed upon everyone in the Lower Ring. Those in the Middle and Upper Rings were able to dodge it better. Zuko hears all this crazy crap about the city but at the same time, he hears about the pain his own family inflicted during the Siege and to all the refugees so I think he's really confused about what he's supposed to actually feel and think.
> 
> Anyway, I have drafts until chapter 10. Given the weeks before school, I think I can reasonably finish until Chapter 15. Beyond that, school will sadly be in full swing so expect a mini-hiatus although I'll try my best to finish beyond 15 chapters. By mini-hiatus, I just mean updates will not be weekly anymore and will be more sporadic.
> 
> Comments are greatly appreciated!


	8. Nothing Could Be Done

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jet does something boneheaded, Zuko puts on the Blue Spirit mask again and Jin comes to a decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. So I made a really, small edit in the last chapter. I just made Seiji's membership in OWL more explicit. No need to go back to re-read, it's just two or three lines added really.

Jin was tired.

As she positioned the carving knife against the small block of wood, she tried to suppress a yawn. Overhead, the lamplight cast a weak, pitiful glow over the entire printing shop, making it difficult to see anything. Even with her magnifying glasses on, Jin had to squint and draw the block closer, just to see if she had properly chipped away at the wood to form the correct stroke. What made things doubly difficult was that the strokes were in Tsao Shu or Running Script which was the most complex and abstract of all calligraphy styles. Jin herself had never been able to master it—it was why whenever an order requiring the Tsao Shu Style was made, Jin’s grandfather would be the one to make the characters on the wooden blocks.

She would have liked to work on the new order in the morning, when she was less tired and when there would be more light to go by, but it couldn’t be helped. The order was due in two days’ time and they had yet to finish making the wooden blocks that were to be arranged on the plate. Even Longshot had to stay behind to work an extra shift—and her grandfather was always loath to keep him in the shop so late. He knew that Longshot lived all the way at the other side of the city and didn’t want to subject him to the hell that was Ba Sing Se’s crowded, late-evening commute.

As she steadily worked, her grandfather sat beside her, hunched over his favorite Pai Sho set. Jin was grateful for his presence. She wasn’t a child and he hardly needed to stay with her. But it was good to have company on dull, work moments such as these. Longshot was there of course, but he didn’t count; he never spoke unless he absolutely needed to.

“I’ve made my move. It’s your turn,” Grandfather said.

Jin glanced up and quietly examined the Pai Sho board.

“Move my bamboo tile diagonally,” Jin instructed.

Her grandfather obliged, clucking his tongue as he did so. “Hmm. Interesting.”

“Oh?” Jin said as she looked back at the block. Carefully, she inclined the knife at an angle and began to carefully chip away at the wood along a curve.

“Not your usual playing style,” her grandfather observed.

“I’ve been playing with Uncle Seiji. Picked up a few tricks,” Jin said.

“Seiji, huh? Why not Dal-moon or Seok-ho?”

“Because I actually want to improve my game and the only person in the Club who ever came close to beating you is Uncle Seiji.”

“That’s because your Uncle Seiji _cheats_ ,” her grandfather said. “He still plays as if he’s a hoodlum trying to swindle some poor soul in a sketchy bar. Him almost winning against me isn’t a testament to his Pai Sho strategy.”

“Some say that cheating can be a form of strategy,” Jin said. She gently elbowed Longshot, who was whittling away at a wooden block with a veiner. “Right, Longshot?”

Longshot looked at her from the corner of his eyes and gave a non-committal shrug.

“Of course, your uncle would say that,” Grandfather crossly said. “He would say just about anything to justify his wicked ways. Your move.”

Jin looked at her grandfather’s new position on the board. She sat in complete silence for a few moments before saying, “Two rows down for my fourth plum tile.”

“Hmm…” her grandfather said, stroking his beard. As he intently examined each Pai Sho square, he commented, “I’ve heard some interesting things from your mother today.”

“Is it about how Minister Tam has taken another one of the Lau sisters as a concubine?” Jin shook her head and chuckled. “Because if so, you’re too late. I’ve already heard about that one from Miss Itani.”

“No. What I’ve heard is actually…ah…a little more _distressing_ —your move—‘’

“Two diagonal moves down the left for my fifth azalea tile—no the one on the other side—yes, that one.” She rotated the block clockwise as she tried to find the best position to scrape away at a slender, long dot. “So…if it’s not about the Lau sisters, then what is it?”

“Have you heard about what happened to Chancellor Yang Ming?”

Jin paused from her carving and even Longshot looked up with interest.

“What about him?” she asked. “Miss Itani was _so furious_ when he didn’t show up to the recital. She said it was a _most grievous snub_ , the likes of which she had never seen—‘’

Leung snorted. “Itani imagines slights _everywhere_. She will take almost everything as a snub when it strikes her fancy—your move—‘’

“Poplar, one move forward—but no, seriously, she was very upset. Especially after he promised to come and she had already blabbed to the whole of the Lower Ring that she had managed to gain the attendance of such an important person. She even prepared a special seat for him! When the recital ended and he didn’t show, she was practically frothing with rage.” Jin sighed and shook her head. “I was kind of disappointed too. I really wanted to meet him. I’m a big fan.”

“Well, you should forgive him. Of course, Chancellor Yang Ming couldn’t show. A day before, the poor man had been arrested by the Dai Li.”

Longshot stilled while Jin gave a horrified half-yell, “ _What_?”

Her hand slipped and accidentally whittled away at a corner too much. Curses! Now she would have to start all over again. Sighing, she rummaged for a wooden block from the box and tossed it over to her grandfather. “Could you write this character again? I accidentally ruined it.”

“Pay closer attention! Do you have any idea how difficult it is to make these?” her grandfather said in annoyance. He took the wooden block and grabbed a brush and an inkwell.

“It’s not my fault that you decided to give me news like _that_ while I’m in the middle of doing a block carving,” Jin said. “What do you mean he’s been arrested? He had never gotten into trouble with the Dai Li before.”

“His new play, the _Dramas of the Ming Official_ * was deemed too reactionary,” Grandfather said, whipping his wrist as he brushed the character on the block with a flourish.

“I’ve read that play. How could it be reactionary? It’s about Hai Rui, the very personification of justice and courage in the Earth Kingdom! In the play, Hai Rui just went to remonstrate with the emperor on behalf of the suffering ordinary people at the risk of his own life—‘’

”And, what was he remonstrating for?” her grandfather said as he handed the block back to her.

“For the emperor to send an army to the Wu Song Division which had been isolated and was the only division to not yet surrender against the Barbarian Horde— _oh_ ,” Jin said in sudden realization. “I see.”

Grandfather grimly nodded. “It was seen as an allegorical attack on Ba Sing Se’s Isolationist Policy.”

Longshot morosely hung his head while Jin examined the new block glumly. “That's still a bit of a stretch though. Poor Chancellor Yang Ming. He was one of my favorite playwrights. _Romance of the Western Chamber_ will always be my favorite.”

Her grandfather heaved a great sigh. “Indeed. He had really rotten luck. That man lacked any real backbone and was always happy to play the dog for the Dai Li. So, I doubt his criticism was intentional.”

Longshot raised a questioning brow. By now, Jin had known him well enough to at least figure out that he was asking where Chancellor Yang Ming was arrested. She dutifully conveyed Longshot’s question to her grandfather who replied, “In the Lower Ring at one of the pleasure quarters. Seok-ho—he’s a friend of ours, Longshot, a member of a Club I belong to—told me that it was a complete shock to the upper echelons of society.”

Jin looked at her grandfather, surprised that he was saying this much to a non-Order member. But then again, she had a slight suspicion that her grandfather wanted to recruit Longshot.

“Usually, they would at least get some inkling whenever someone had fallen out of favor with the Dai Li,” her grandfather continued. “But this arrest absolutely came out of nowhere. _Such a shame_ …”

Jin caught on to the double meaning behind her grandfather’s words immediately.

_Such a shame that Agent Shou Yu was not able to gather intel in time._

Agent Shou Yu was an Order member who worked as a double agent in the Dai Li. He gathered intelligence on behalf of the Order, usually on persons who were in danger of being labelled as Huaifenzi.

Typically, once he obtained news that someone was under suspicion and therefore, would be placed under tight surveillance, he would relay the details of the probable Huaifenzi to the Order. The Order would then make contact with the person of interest and offer to smuggle him or her out of the city before any arrests by the Dai Li could occur.

If Agent Shou Yu had managed to gather information that Chancellor Yang Ming was about to be subjected to political persecution, then perhaps the Order could have done something. But now, with him in the Dai Li’s clutches, there was little they could do. Even if they did have the requisite information about where the captives were held and somehow managed to break in, it was just too difficult to go through the guarded, secret prison-holds without risking exposure to the Order.

 _We can’t save every person who gets captured by the Dai Li_ , her grandfather once told her. _There are too many of them and too little of us in the city. We need to pick our battles._

“Yes. Such a shame…” Jin mumbled.

On noticing her troubled look, Grandfather reached out and squeezed her hand. “Anyway, no need to make this night even more troublesome than it already is. Let’s go back to our game. Next move?”

Jin looked through her available tiles and tried not think of poor Chancellor Yang Ming out there somewhere, in some damp, dark cell. If he wasn’t re-educated, then he would most certainly become just another disappeared person in this city. Jin thought that to disappear without a trace was the most terrible thing—even if she died, she would still like to be found.

“Three turns for my peony tile,” she finally said.

The corners of her grandfather’s lips twitched into a smile as he obliged and moved the tile for her. “Not bad.”

“Not bad? I’ve got you trapped, gramps,” Jin said, trying to force the conversation back to its previous lightheartedness. She turned her attention back to the wooden block, her nose scrunching up as she came across a particularly difficult stroke. She would have to use a smaller knife for this one. Putting aside her the carving knife, she grabbed a small fish-tail knife and carefully tried to chip away at the wood.

“It’s a good gambit, I grant you that. You’re learning the game well, granddaughter,” Grandfather said. As she scraped at the edge of one stroke, she heard the sound of a tile clacking against the wooden board. “But not well enough to outplay your old grandfather, yet.”

Jin looked up and groaned. Her grandfather had outmaneuvered her and won the game.

“It’s hardly a fair match!” Jin protested. “I don’t have complete focus. I’m distracted doing _this_.”

“Excuses, excuses,” Grandfather shot back. “I’ve beat you handily thrice now and the first two times, _I_ was the one busy writing the characters on the wooden blocks. You can ask Longshot. He was there to see.”

Longshot gave a distressed shake of his head and held his hand up, almost as if to say, _Don’t involve me in this!_

Jin frowned at her grandfather and protested, “But that’s not as distracting as—‘’

Before they could continue their argument, the door suddenly banged opened and a harried-looking Smellerbee staggered into the room.

Her eyes immediately fell on Longshot who was looking at her with concern.

Jin asked, “Smellerbee? What are you doing here? We’re not keeping Longshot too late are we—‘’

Smellerbee was incoherent. She crashed into Jin and shook the older girl, sputtering, “It’s…it’s Jet. There was—he had this plan—I couldn’t stop him—then there was this fight and they—they just took him and I tried to—‘’

“Girl, keep quiet and stop your blubbering,” Grandfather shortly said.

As if on cue, Smellerbee calmed herself down and stared at Jin’s grandfather.

“What happened?” Jin said. She stood up and gently led Smellerbee into a nearby chair. Longshot followed them, took the seat next to Smellerbee and reached out to place her hand in his.

Smellerbee took a deep breath and wiped the snot from her nose with her sleeve.

“I tried to stop Jet but he had made up his mind to expose Lee and Mushi today—‘’

“ _Expose_?” Grandfather interjected, raising one supercilious eyebrow.

“Yes. We’ve told Jin about this before. He thinks Mushi and Lee are firebenders and recently, he’s been on this crazy kick where he’s trying to gather evidence against them,” Smellerbee said in a rush.

“Interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever been informed of this very relevant piece of new, granddaughter,” her grandfather drawled as he shot her an admonishing look. Jin guiltily looked away and winced.

“Smellerbee…” Jin said, kneeling down and carefully placing her hands on Smellerbee’s shoulder. “Why exactly did they arrest Jet?”'

“Because he got into a fight with Lee!” Smellerbee wailed.

Jin groaned and looked up at the ceiling in frustration. _Oh, Jet, you utter bonehead_. After all the fuss she went through to warn him, he had still gone looking for trouble.

“Where did this fight happen?” Jin said, trying her very best to suppress her panic. It wouldn’t do to let Smellerbee and Longshot see how rattled she was.

“In the teashop. I swear, I didn’t know Jet would attack Lee. He just went crazy and entered the shop and started yelling that Lee’s uncle was a Fire Nation spy—‘’

“He said that? In front of everyone?” Jin said.

“ _Fool_!” Grandfather scowled, echoing exactly what Jin was too tactful to say out loud.

“Smellerbee, listen to me. You said they had taken him away. Who are ‘they’?” Jin said. She closed her eyes and sent a silent prayer to the Spirits. _Please, please let them be the Earth Kingdom City Guard. Please, please just let it be the City Guard and not the Dai Li—_

“It was the Dai Li,” Smellerbee said.

Jin’s heart shuddered in her chest. Her grandfather leaned back in his seat and gave a long, weary sigh. He looked as though all the air had been knocked out of his lungs.

“Then it is over,” Grandfather said, after several long moments of silence. Then, with grim determination, he suddenly stood up and began to put all his things away. “If he accused them of being firebenders out in the open, then Mushi and his nephew might be in trouble too. We’re going to have to go to see if they’re okay. Jin, you must rush ahead and I will catch up with you. We would go together but you know how these old bones are. I would just be holding you back. By the time I hobble over there, it might already be too late. I’ll call on other friends in the area to help.”

He started puttering away at the shop, stowing the blocks and gathering papers with quick, business-like movements. Jin gazed after him, still feeling a little faint with shock. Her grandfather was barking orders at her, telling her what to do and where she should go if ever Lee was taken away for questioning but somehow, she was having trouble getting her muscles to move.

In front of her, Smellerbee and Longshot stood up in protest, with Smellerbee holding a hand out and croaking, “W-Wait. But what about Jet?”

“I already told you. If the Dai Li were the ones to arrest him, then that boy will never see the light of day,” Grandfather said. He was blunt, as always, but he said everything in a surprisingly gentle tone. He looked at Smellerbee and Longshot with sad, pitying eyes. “I’m sorry. But nothing could be done. If you’re lucky, they’re just going to re-educate him and you might still be able to see him.”

Smellerbee and Longshot stared at him, eyes wide with pain and hurt.

“That can’t be true, can’t it Jin?” Smellerbee anxiously said, turning away from Grandfather and grabbing Jin’s hand. Smellerbee squeezed it and held on as if it was a lifeline.

Jin looked away, unable to meet Smellerbee’s eyes. There was a strange pressure in her ears that made everything sound muffled, as if she was a million miles underwater. She had been here before, many years ago, although unlike her grandfather, her Uncle Seiji had told her the exact same thing in a less direct fashion. It had been a week after her father’s arrest. She and Shun had been living with Uncle Seiji for a while in the Outer Wall. She had snuck away one night and made it as far as the train station—years later, she still wasn’t quite sure what she had been planning to do. All she knew was that she wanted to, _had to_ get back to the city to help her father. She had almost gotten on the train but Uncle Seiji managed to catch her before it left. She thought he would be angry with her but instead, he had sat her down and gently explained to her that as much as they wanted to help, there was nothing that could be done for now but wait and hope that the penalty wouldn’t be too steep. And even then, Uncle Seiji said, there might be a high chance that they would never see her father again.

It felt odd to be in Uncle Seiji’s place, to be the one to tell Smellerbee and Longshot that Jet was probably gone for good.

“Jin! Are you listening?” her grandfather said, looking concerned.

Jin hastily stood up. “Er…yes. Of course.”

She felt a little dizzy. People disappearing was not something knew. She had heard stories of course but aside from her father, she hadn’t personally known the Dai Li’s other victims. Now, she knew two of them.

Grandfather must have realized that she was disconcerted because he gave a rare, encouraging half-smile. “Good. Now, go and see how Mushi and his nephew is doing. I’ll catch up shortly.”

He jerked his head towards Smellerbee and Longshot who were huddled together, stunned. “I’m going take these two to get some food. Maybe treat them to some Dragon’s Beard.** Looks like they’ll need it.”

Jin nodded and gave him a wobbly smile in return. “Right. I’ll meet you at Pao’s.”

As her grandfather handed Jin her coat, he pulled her closer and whispered in her ear, “Do not worry too much and lose hope. I’ll talk with Agent Shou Yu and see what could be done for your friend.”

“Thank you so much Gramps,” Jin said, immediately feeling a little better. She pulled away and gave him a small kiss on the cheek.

She gave Smellerbee’s hand one last, re-assuring squeeze before taking the magnifying glasses off, putting her coat on and rushing out the door to Pao’s Teashop.

It wasn’t until she was on the train that it hit her. She had been staring out the window, at the tiny pinpricks of light twinkling across the city when unbidden, the memory of Jet’s last goodbye came to her.

_“Don’t miss me too much!” he yelled as she walked past the balustrade into the train platform._

_“I’ll try my best.”_

Jin blinked rapidly at the distance, her eyes suddenly blurry with tears.

Who knew that, that might have been the last time she would see Jet?

 _The Dai Li had him_ , Jin miserably reminded herself.

Even if her grandfather talked with Agent Shou Yu, she highly doubted that he could do more other than play around with the paperwork to make the penalty re-education.

It truly was over. There was nothing that could be done. Jet was gone.

* * *

The carriage rattled along the streets at a rapid pace but Zuko managed to catch up just fine.

It was a little tricky, following it from the sidewalk, especially since the city was still alive with merriment—shops were still open, people were walking to and fro in the streets and loud, raucous music filtered out from the bars. But at least the crowd helped to conceal him and made him seem as if he was just another random passer-by. If the Dai Li even caught a whiff of his presence, he would be in big trouble. He had managed to escape the arresting Dai Li agent’s interrogation unscathed but somehow, he doubted that the man would be so lenient a second time around once he discovered that Zuko was tailing him and all the other agents who had arrested Jet.

The carriage turned to the left and stopped in front of an old, dilapidated building with broken windows. A peeling sign that said “CHAOYANG” was nailed by the front door. Once Zuko closed the gap between them, he was careful to duck into a narrower, adjacent alleyway that offered a limited view of the building front. Pressing himself close to the shadowed wall, Zuko watched as three Dai Li agents hauled a struggling, yelling Jet into the building.

He waited for a few minutes until all three agents went out, entered the carriage and drove away. Alright. So, his guess was correct—they were holding Jet in the building. Zuko stepped forward and then hesitated, wondering if he should attempt to case the building right now. He was still wearing his work uniform, which was in a rather noticeable shade of green and he didn’t have his Blue Spirit mask or his swords with him (he had returned the ones he wielded against Jet to the hapless guard he had taken them away from).

The idea of prowling about a Dai Li Building without any disguise made him nervous. If they caught a glimpse of him, they were sure to remember him from his altercation with Jet and investigate him again. No, it would be better if he went back home to get his mask and change into something more suitable.

With his decision made, Zuko silently clambered up the building. He would have to get home using the rooftops. The area was unfamiliar and he couldn’t afford to waste his time wandering about this accursed city again; the longer Jet was in the Dai Li’s hands, the bigger the possibility of him disappearing forever.

He leapt across the rooftops and scaled back down to the streets once he reached the district where he lived in. When he arrived in their apartment complex, instead of going through the window leading to his room, he walked through the front door, thinking there would be no one there but his uncle. To his surprise, he found that it was crammed with a handful of people. There was Dal-moon, Jin and a third man wearing a lavish, silk _gwanbok_ sitting around his uncle in their tiny, round table.

Before Zuko could react, Jin suddenly stood up and darted towards him.

“ _Lee_!” she bawled. Zuko stood there, frozen as she threw her arms around him. He stared at her, stunned and unsure of what to do. The tone of worry in her voice sounded so fervent that he had no doubt that her concern was sincere. “You’re okay! Your uncle said that the Dai Li were interviewing you but when he turned around, you disappeared. I checked all the precincts in the area and asked around and when no one had seen you, I thought that they had taken you away like Jet…”

She continued to babble further, never once releasing him from her grip. And either because he was too focused on going back to Chaoyang Building or because he hadn’t been at the receiving end of a proper hug from someone other than his uncle for a long time, like an idiot, Zuko forgot to check himself and hugged her back. Hesitating, he brought his arms up and gave her an awkward pat on the back. Was this correct? He’d only ever hugged Uncle Iroh properly. He had seen people hug one another on the streets of course, be had rarely experienced it himself.

“I’m okay,” he said, feeling inexplicably guilty for worrying her so. He awkwardly pulled away from her, suddenly embarrassed at their contact. He rubbed the back of his head and tried to come up with a plausible excuse. “I just went to um…”

“Where were you?!” This time, it was his uncle who spoke and he sounded even more frantic than Jin. He marched over to Zuko and also tackled his nephew into a hug. “What were you even thinking, drawing out those swords and rising to his bait? Instead of deescalating the situation, it made everything worse!”

 _And led to Jet’s arrest._ The words hung in the air, unsaid, but Zuko knew that his uncle was thinking it. He was glad that his uncle was thoughtful enough not to say it out loud. He hardly needed any reminders about how foolishly he behaved tonight. He knew well enough the part he played in Jet’s arrest. It was why he had made up his mind to go forward with this stupid, futile mission of rescuing that idiot.

“And then to disappear so soon after it happened!” Uncle continued. “When I couldn’t find you, I assumed the worst...”

His uncle’s voice sounded grainy and with a start, Zuko realized that it seemed like Uncle Iroh was on the verge of crying. He returned his uncle’s hug with much more fierceness.

“I’m so sorry uncle,” Zuko sincerely said. He hated it whenever he caused distress to Uncle Iroh.

His uncle wasn’t done scolding him.

“You can’t just go away like that and not say anything to me! Especially after what had happened!” Uncle Iroh said. He gestured at Jin and the two other men seated at the table. “I had to ask my friends to help me find you! Your disappearance sent Jin over here wandering _round and round_ the city!”

“Oh no, Mushi Laoyeh, I didn’t mind…” Jin attempted to interject.

“No, he’s right, I’ve caused everyone unwarranted alarm,” Zuko said. He gave a very low bow first to Jin and his uncle and then to Dal-moon and his companion. “I’m sorry.”

As he stood up, he noticed the clock on the wall and suddenly remembered that he was on a time crunch to rescue Jet.

“Pao was worried too, you know? Although that didn’t stop him from docking your pay. But in his defense, you did ruin the table by kicking it towards Jet and forced us to close early so—‘’

“Um…right. Just tell him to deduct all the damage from my pay, no problem,” Zuko distractedly said as he made his way to his room.

“Where are you going?” Uncle Iroh demanded. “Nephew, we have guests! Come and have tea with us. I want to introduce you to my other friend, Seok-ho—‘’

“I can’t,” Zuko shortly said. “I feel…um…a little tired from tonight’s events and just want to rest.”

And before his uncle could stop him, Zuko slipped into his room and closed the sliding doors with a resounding bang.

He locked his door close, quickly rummaged through his closet and pulled out a pair of black pants and a black, fitted tunic. As he unbuttoned his uniform and changed into the tunic, vaguely, he heard bits and pieces of their conversation outside.

“I’m sorry if my nephew is being a little stand-offish…”

“Oh, it’s no problem at all, Mushi Laoyeh. He had a rough night…” Jin was saying.

“Yes, just let the boy rest. Is he an initiate, Grand Lotus?” an unfamiliar voice said. It probably belonged to Seok-ho, the man sitting beside Dal-moon.

“No, not yet…”

“Why not? I’ve talked to the people who saw the brawl. They all said he was a good fighter. Has the makings of a wise philosopher too. Kid’s amazing…he could quote _The Analects_ verbatim,” Dal-moon asked.

Half-listening, Zuko finished changing, pushed his futon aside, lifted the tatami and started to pry the floorboard open. In any other circumstance, he would have probably paid closer attention to the conversation outside—he was always eager to learn more about his uncle’s Pai Sho club. But for now, he had to rush.

“Believe me, I would petition for him but he’s not…quite ready yet…”

“Well, regardless, you should bring him along to the dinner tomorrow. It’s good for him to start getting acquainted with some other members, especially if you’re planning to initiate him someday. I have a son just about his age, Beom-pal who’s also an initiate…”

Finally, the floorboard came loose and revealed the Blue Spirit grinning at him. Zuko hastily grabbed the mask and his Dao swords. He would have to put the mask on elsewhere, away from their apartment, where no prying eyes could make the connection between him and the Blue Spirit.

“I don’t know…” his uncle said. “Isn’t the meeting only between Senior Members?”

“Yes, but the dinner isn’t. When the time for the meeting comes, we will be sure to keep him out. Anyway, since initiates are also not allowed in tomorrow’s meeting, during that time, my son could entertain him. Jin, you come along as well…it’s been a while since we’ve had you in the house…if you and your grandfather want you could invite Seiji as well…”

“Uncle Seiji is away for a mission and won’t be back until the day after tomorrow. And I don’t want to impose Uncle Seok-ho…”

He strapped the swords in his back and put everything back in its place. No sense in getting his uncle worried if the man came snooping into his room again.

“Nonsense Jin, you’re like family to me and it would be good for you and Beom-pal to show Lee around the Upper Ring. Maybe hanging out with kids his age will keep him out of trouble…”

Whatever else Seok-ho was saying filtered away as Zuko climbed out of the window and clambered up the building using the upper floors’ window sills. He made it to the rooftop and moved a few paces away into a dark corner to put the mask on before making his way back to Chaoyang Building.

It was late by the time he got there. He had trouble finding his way back to the building, even when he used the rooftops. Aside from the fact that the city was a confusing mess, the shops had all started to close and everyone had put out all their lamplights. The entire city plunged into darkness, making the buildings and streets look nothing more like grayish shapes in the night.

Zuko stopped and examined his surroundings. Chaoyang Building was on the structure to his left. He could move to the building at the front and climb down, but if guards were posted at the front then he would be directly across them and be easily seen. No, the better option was to get on the roof of Chaoyang Building and do his search by climbing downwards. Who knew? Jet might even be in one of the upper floors and he wouldn’t have to go all the way down.

Chaoyang Building was several stories higher. He took a deep breath, got up momentum and made the jump, silencing a grunt as his hands gripped the ledge. Sighing in annoyance, he moved an elbow over the edge and pulled himself up and over. Then, using the window ledges and the metal pipes crisscrossing the building, he began his slow descent downwards.

The place was deserted. Every floor he passed by was empty, with nothing but the occasional rundown furniture or scraps of trash. He had expected the place to be a sort of safehouse and even figured that the windows would be blackened. But the windows were all clear, as if the Dai Li had nothing to hide and the building seemed just like another ordinary, dirty hovel.

 _Empty, empty, empty_ , Zuko thought to himself, feeling more frantic as he passed through another abandoned floor.

There was only one floor left. Zuko used the metal pipe running across the building wall as foothold and flipped his body so that he was upside down and facing the window.

The ground floor was mercifully, not empty although disappointingly, it looked nothing at all like a secret prisonhold. Around four Dai Li agents were in the room. They were seated in tables that stood in front of towering wooden cabinets. All of them were hunched over the tabletop, writing something. Jet was nowhere to be found.

Was he too late? Did they bring himself somewhere else?

But that didn’t make sense. The three agents who arrested Jet all left without him. If they wanted to bring him somewhere else, they would have just done so.

No, Jet must be in there somewhere. If not, the papers on their desks and the cabinets would hold some answers.

Timing his movements so that he wouldn’t be seen, Zuko swung his body down, noiselessly landed on the ground and darted to the adjacent alleyway. He tried to think of a new plan—the problem had now become getting the information without being seen.

The solution came in the form a filthy, gnarled old beggar crossing the street. Quickly and before the old man even realized what was going on, Zuko came up behind him and held his swords close to the man’s throat.

“Wait…please…I have no money…” the old man sputtered. He turned a little to the back and when he saw the looming, terrifying grin of the Blue Spirit, he bowed his head deferentially. “Or are you a Spirit? Please, Spirit, do not harm me, I am nothing but a—‘’

“ _Quiet_!” Zuko snapped.

The old man stopped talking although he was still shaking with fear.

“If you want to live, you’re going to do exactly as I say,” Zuko whispered in his ear. “I want you to go bang against those trash bins over there to cause a commotion and yell for help. Then, when the Dai Li agents from that building go out, keep screaming for help and lead them to the opposite side of the street—‘’

“ _Are you crazy?_ I’m not getting involved with the Dai Li!” the beggar said in a firmer voice. It seemed that the thought of attracting the Dai Li’s attention had made him forget about his fear over being hacked with a stranger’s swords or subjected to the wrath of a malevolent Spirit.

Zuko sheathed one sword and reached into his pocket to pull out three gold pieces. It was a good call that he decided to keep some money on him.

“I’ll make it worth your while, old man,” Zuko said holding the coins up for the beggar to see.

The beggar’s eyes went round. He stared at the coins contemplatively for a few moments before nodding his head.

“You’ve got yourself a deal Mister Spirit,” he said. Zuko handed the coins and watched from a hidden alcove as the beggar toppled over the trash bins with an almighty crash. Then, with a booming voice that impressed even Zuko, he screamed, “Help! _Help_!”

Three Dai Li agents immediately rushed out. The beggar swiftly ran and disappeared at a corner, screaming help all the way. The agents looked around for a bit, probably trying to find the source of the voice before breaking into a run at the road where the beggar entered into.

There was still one agent inside the building but there was no time to think of another plan to draw him out. He would just have to knock the man out. Quickly, Zuko hurried to building front, forced the window opened and slipped in. To his luck, the agent had his back turned to Zuko. Before the man even had an inkling of what was going on, Zuko went behind him and pressed his fingers against a pressure point on the man’s neck.

The Dai Li Agent was unconscious in seconds.

He didn’t have a lot of time. The distraction the beggar afforded him would only be momentary, especially since the man was old and would no doubt be eventually overtaken by the Dai Li.

Zuko scoured through the tables and read through the parchments lying across them before moving on to the cabinets. He looked at the front labels and quickly worked out that they were arranged by month and date. He read through the labels and sighed with relief once he found the cabinet drawer for this month. He attempted to open the drawer and when it wouldn’t budge, he fumbled with a pen knife hidden in his tunic. Using the knife, he experimentally prodded it into the keyhole and tried to find the unlocking latch. After a several agonizingly long seconds, the drawer clicked open. Zuko peered inside and grinned. Yes! In the drawer were rows upon rows of folders.

He picked the frontmost one—he was sure they would hold records of today’s arrest—and sifted through it with haste, keeping his ears open for any change in the Dai Li agent’s nasally breaths.

Finally, he found Jet’s record. A copy of his passport along with his residency certificate and identification tag was pinned with his arrest sheet. On the sheet, was a small sketch of Jet’s face next to an account of all his personal information. Zuko placed a finger on the paper and dragged it down as he read through each line. There was Jet's full name, the apartment where he lived, the place where he worked and his previous hometown before coming to Ba Sing Se. To his relief, the place where he was being held was also indicated—it simply said Cell 1967, wherever that was. Zuko memorized the cell number before moving on to the rest of the record. On the “personal comments” section, there were only two phrases “High-Level; for Lake Laogai after preliminary re-education” and “Re: Page 3 of Interview Transcript—Possible solution to the bison problem?”

Zuko immediately zeroed in on the word “bison.” What bison problem? And what did Jet have to do with it? One thing Zuko was sure of was that the bison they were referring to was the Avatar’s bison. _It must be._ The Avatar was the only one who had one as all the bisons had gone extinct during the first quarter of the War.

The transcript, which was about fifteen pages long was neatly bound and attached to the back of Jet’s arrest sheet.

Just as Zuko managed to flip through it to page three, a slight noise rustled from the outside. Damn it! He was so close! Gulping nervously, Zuko quickly placed all the papers back into the file, returned it into the cabinet and locked it closed. Then, he slipped out of the window, clambered up until he was at least two floors away and held himself very still.

The three agents suddenly came into view. One of them was loudly complaining, “ _What a nutter!_ Wasting our time over a supposed spirit sighting!”

“Careful,” another one nervously replied. He warily looked around. “The Blue Spirit he could be talking about could still be out there—‘’

“Are you for real? Don’t tell me you actually believe in that bullshit he just fed us?” the third agent said.

“Spirits _are_ real. My grandmother once saw one….”

His voice faded away as they entered. Then, Zuko heard one of them yell, “Awww look guys….Agent Zhuang Xi is a asleep.”

A loud thump echoed across the building.

“Wakey, wakey sleepyhead!”

“What the fuck, Zhuang Xi, sleeping on the job already?”

“Sorry guys…” a bleary voice said. “Don’t know what happened. One moment I was doing the report and the next I was suddenly asleep…”

The round of chuckles escaping from the ground floor told Zuko all that he needed to know. None of them suspected anything. Sighing in relief, he climbed up until he was on the rooftop and tried to digest the new information he had just discovered.

Jet was alive in Cell 1967. But where the cell was located was anyone’s guess.

And what was more, somehow Jet was connected to the Avatar’s bison.

* * *

Jin couldn’t sleep.

She tossed and turned in her kang, the image of Jet being dragged away by the Dai Li playing across her mind in an endless loop. At least the Dai Li hadn’t turned their attention to Lee. She had been worried for a moment, when Mushi told her that Lee had disappeared and nearly had a mini-panic attack at the thought that she had lost yet another friend in the same night. When he showed up in Mushi’s apartment, her relief washed over her like a tsunami.

If only Jet was as lucky.

 _There was nothing that could be done_ , she viciously told herself. If the Dai Li had him, then the best that she could hope for was that they would just re-educate Jet. And yet, the idea of leaving him, of doing nothing while he was in the Dai Li’s grasp was more than she could bear.

Somehow, it felt wrong to tell Smellerbee and Longshot that they must let Jet go. How easily she uttered those words! When her own father had run afoul with the Dai Li and had been subjected to inquisition after inquisition, denunciation after denunciation, how many times had she wished for someone, anyone to ease his burden? And when, finally, he had been taken away for the very last time, did she not spend several long, agonizing nights in the temple, praying to the Spirits to send someone to save him, to set him free?

Before long, the first rays of the dawn filtered through their moth-eaten curtains and without even realizing about it, Jin had come to a decision.

Silently, she stood up and carefully tiptoed past her mother who was sleeping in the kang next to her. With a speed she didn’t even know she possessed, she rushed through cooking breakfast (soy milk with _youtiao_ ), fed their cat and iron-pressed and prepared Shun’s uniform. Then, she wrote a quick note asking her grandfather to take Shun to the school, making some excuse about having to go to the library early before clambering down her apartment and hailing a rickshaw to take her to Longshot and Smellerbee’s apartment.

By the time she got there, the morning bustle had already begun; people were milling about, hawkers were yelling and advertising their wares and store-owners were slowly opening up their stalls. Jin excitedly knocked on the door and waited in silence.

Finally, Longshot opened it. He gaped at Jin, shock filtering through his bleary eyes. Jin wasn’t sure if it was from the surprise of seeing her up so early in the morning or from concern at her terrible appearance after a night with no sleep.

“Let’s do it,” Jin enthusiastically said. Now that she had formulated a semblance of a plan, she had regained her usual pep and was optimistic about their prospects.

Longshot tilted his head to the side and she gathered that he was asking her to elaborate.

“Let’s rescue Jet,” she clarified.

Immediately, Longshot became alert. He straightened up and looked at her with eager eyes.

“Yes, I mean it,” Jin confirmed. “But before we do anything, we’re going to need a little help.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I have finally discovered that we can use HTML in ao3 which means yay! Links!
> 
> If you're curious about how woodblock printing works and want to have a better picture of how Jin and Longshot do the carving, check out this [video by Liziqi on woodblock printing. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG0MdDS2WI0&t=228s) They usually have a pre-carved wooden blocks but those wear out so they would have to do it again. Also, if it's in another calligraphy style other than the standard, then obviously they need to make new ones. I highly suggest you check her other stuff. They're so soothing and never fail to make me relax lol
> 
> [ Also here's another video of woodblock printing. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGoNIomsQIM&t=105s) . This one is more informative.
> 
> This one is related to the previous chapter. Here are some videos you can see to get a picture of what gong mo or ribbon dancing is like.
> 
> [This is how a more traditional gong mo or silk ribbon dance is like. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv5Y827abc4)
> 
> But I imagine Jin's "livelier" dance to be ribbon gymnastics like these:
> 
> [Deng Sen Yue ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlE7_xAJO1I&t=102s) \- She is one of my absolute faves! I'm a big fan.
> 
> [Son Yeon Jae ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDngTR6Q5QU&t=62s) \- Another fantastic and gorgeous gymnast!
> 
> So yes, lots of more flips and tumbles for Jin's number.
> 
> Some things of note:
> 
> *The Drama of the Ming Official is based on The Dramas of the Mandarin Ming which really was banned in China during the cultural revolution. It was banned because Hai Rui was thought to represent Marshall Peng Dehuai who spoke against Mao's disastrous policies.
> 
> **Dragon's Beard is really what the Ancient Chinese called cotton candy haha
> 
> Some thoughts:
> 
> So, Zuko goes snooping around again as the Blue Spirit. I think that after hearing all the terrible crap that the Dai Li does to their prisoners, Zuko would feel guilty about indirectly playing a part in Jet's arrest and would attempt to bust him out. Jin just wants to do so because for a number of reasons. First, she and Jet have known each other for about a month now and naturally, when your friend disappears and you had the means to help him, you would at least attempt something. Second, the Jet incident is the first time in a while where Jin loses someone she is closely acquainted with. When the incident with her dad happened, she felt like they made every mistake in the book in keeping him from being killed and swore she would do better when given the chance. Third, she's really just one of those types who cannot help but do something to help, especially when she's in a position to do so.
> 
> The Order meddles in Ba Sing Se's situation quite a bit and tries their best to rescue people who are subjected to political persecution. Their M.O. is usually to get to the person before any arrests take place because once arrests happen, then they encounter several logistical nightmares that come with breaking in and breaking out. No doubt they could do it but it also increases the risk of them being caught and therefore, the Order being exposed. So as much as possible, they try to save people before the Dai Li sinks their claws in them. 
> 
> Anyway, that's pretty much it. As always, if you have the time, please let me know what you think. It's always nice to read the comments.


	9. Beyond Crazy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jin asks for help and Zuko snoops around.

“ _Whoa_ ,” Smellerbee whispered, her eyes widening at the massive wall of the Gyeong Mansion.

Jin had no trouble understanding Smellerbee’s awe. Even as far as multi-generational estates went, the Gyeong Family Manor was particularly impressive. Jin had been there many times over the course of her childhood and yet, her heart would still beat in amazement whenever she passed through those enormous double-doors.

Like most mansions in the Earth Kingdom, the house was divided into many different courtyards, set within a large compound, surrounded by high walls. The immense front gate was guarded by armed men, who stood stiffly at attention behind enormous statues of reclining _gye-lyongs_ * (which was the official Gyeong Family crest and subtly paid homage to their White Lotus membership by having the animal grasp the flower between its claws). There was a row of eight stone statues in the front for tying up ostrich-horses: four were of tiger-elephants and four of puma-monkeys. These animals were chosen for their lucky sounds: in the Earth Kingdom, the words “elephant” and “high office” had the same sound, as do “monkey” and “aristocracy.”

Smellerbee suddenly looked self-conscious and dipped her chin low, almost as if she was trying to make herself as small as possible. She dubiously looked around and said, “Are you sure we’re allowed to be here?”

“Yes. Don’t worry about it. Uncle Seok-ho is a family friend and his son, Beom-pal is like a brother to me. I’ve been here many times,” Jin assured her.

Sure enough, the guards recognized her instantly and cheerily waved. One of them said, “Miss Jin! A bit early to the dinner, eh?”

Jin gave them a sweet smile, reached into her sleeves and pulled out several wrapped, packets of sweet buns. She tossed them over to each guard who all thanked her profusely.

“Thanks for these. You’re always a darling,” one elderly guard crooned.

Jin playfully winked at him and said, “You know it.”

Upon seeing that the household did indeed know Jin and that they truly had nothing to worry about, Smellerbee relaxed. She, Longshot and Jin trekked across the lawn at a more leisurely pace.

The main structure was a splendid brick and timber, double-fronted mansion with exquisitely framed grass-green colored windows under gracefully curving eaves. The front garden was dense with mulberry trees, a grove of oleander and had a thick trellis of wisteria hanging over ornamental drum-shaped stone stools.

“In here,” Jin whispered, as they ducked into a small passageway that led to the back kitchens. The kitchen was empty, save for two young, serving girls who all gave Jin a smile and a pleasant, “Good morning, Miss Jin!” Jin greeted them and made small talk before leading Smellerbee and Longshot out of the kitchen and up into a long flight of stairs.

As Jin predicted, Beom-pal was running late again. Once they entered the Eastern Wing, he fumbled over towards them, his shirt unbuttoned and his eyes wide with panic. His hair was tied in a horrible approximation of a queue and his sleeves billowed about him, helter-skelter. Were it not for her quick reflexes, he would have crashed right into them and sent their little party tumbling down the stairs.

He breathlessly said, “Jin! Can’t talk now! Late for school and this is my third time already—‘’

“Wait!” Jin said, grabbing his arm. She pushed him back and started to herd him towards his room. “You need to cut school today.”

“What? Why? Hey, ow!” Beom-pal asked as Jin shoved him into his room. Once they were inside, she hastily locked the door before turning to face him.

Beom-pal immediately noticed the distressed look on her face. “What’s wrong?”

“We need talk.”

“About what? Wait. Is this about me missing out on your first recital? Because I did send you those flowers—”

Jin uneasily shifted in her place and said, “No. It’s something a bit more…serious.”

“Serious _how_?”

“It’s hard to explain.”

“Well, can’t it wait until _after_ school? I’ve almost used up all my allowable absences this month—‘’

“No. It’s really important. I need to talk to you about it now,” Jin said.

Beom-pal realized that she was serious. He said nothing for a moment before making a big, dramatic sigh of acquiescence.

“Fine. If it’s so important I guess, I’ll just have to skip school to help you and your friends,” he said with a tragic groan. Jin rolled her eyes, knowing that it was all for show. Beom-pal took any opportunity to miss school.

“Speaking of friends, are you ever going to introduce us?” Beom-pal asked, turning towards Longshot and Smellerbee with a friendly, open expression. The two said nothing as they warily regarded his opulent bedroom—it was clear to Jin that they were intimidated by his noble status.

Jin placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled, “Longshot, Smellerbee, this is my best friend, Gyeong Beom-pal. Beom-pal, this is Longshot and that is Smellerbee.”

“Nice to meet you,” Smellerbee said, giving a deep and deferential bow that was befitting of Beom-pal’s status. Beside her, Longshot followed suit.

“Likewise,” Beom-pal genially said. To their astonishment, he clapped a hand on their shoulders before giving a short, casual bow. Smellerbee and Longshot gawked at him, clearly unused to seeing such an obviously wealthy person interact with someone so far beneath his rank in such an informal manner.

Beom-pal turned to look at Jin and raised a brow. “Now, what’s so important that you’re making me skip class?”

“It’s a bit of a…long story,” Jin evasively said.

“Oh, then we should probably sit down and have some snacks,” Beom-pal airily replied.

He went out for a moment before returning and leading Jin and the rest over to a cluster of settees by his bed. Following after him was a line of servants bearing a pot of tea and a tray full of _songpyeon_ and _dasik_. As they arranged the food on the table, Beom-pal went behind his dressing panel and slipped out of his uniform into a much more casual set of clothes. He went back out to sit with them and looked at Jin expectantly. She shook her head and waited until all the servants went away before launching into her explanation.

“You want to do _what_!?” Beom-pal exclaimed as soon as Jin and Smellerbee finished telling him the entire story. In his shock, he clumsily brought his hand down on the table and accidentally caused the plate full of dasik to spill.

Jin held her hands up and tried to soothingly say, “Now, I know it sounds crazy…”

“ _Have you lost your mind?_ It’s not just crazy! _It’s beyond crazy!_ Do you even have any idea of what you’re contemplating?” Beom-pal demanded.

“Yes. We know the risks. But we all agreed. We’re going to do it,” Jin said, levelling him with a serious stare.

“But…but…this is _the Dai Li_ we’re talking about,” Beom-pal sputtered. “How are you even going to pull it off? You’re just a bunch of teenagers! Why can’t we just ask Agent Shou Yu?”

“Because he already said no,” Jin miserably said. “After Jet got arrested, Gramps went directly to him. He said he couldn’t do anything about it. Anyway, I already expected it to happen. You know the Ord—I mean the Club is reluctant to sanction any rescue operations once someone has already been detained. It’s too risky.”

“Who’s Agent Shou Yu?” Smellerbee asked, curious.

“Er…it’s no one. Just a…Pai Sho buddy of our dads,” Beom-pal haltingly said, suddenly remembering that they were in the presence of non-Order members.

“He told us that the most he could do was play around with the paperwork to make sure it’s just going to be re-education. But beyond that, he can’t commit to anything,” Jin said.

“What if you petition the Club? If you do, I’ll be sure to back you up—'”

“You know that might take too long. By the time they say yes—and we don’t even know if we can convince them to say yes—it might already be too late.”

Beom-pal snapped his fingers. “Your Uncle Seiji then! I’m sure he’ll help us without telling the others.”

“He’s been away on a mission and won’t be back until tomorrow evening. So, you see our problem? We’re going to have to do it ourselves.”

“Yes, but how? If he’s in Lake Laogai—‘’

“He’s not in Lake Laogai,” Jin interrupted.

“How do you know?”

“I talked to Qiao”

“Qiao…as in _Mimaki Qiao of Si Hai Bang?**_ ” Beom-pal’s mouth came open and he just sat there, staring at her as if she had grown an extra head. After a moment, Jin reached over, took hold of his chin and pushed upward, shutting his mouth with a clop.

“Yes, Mimaki Qiao,” Jin defiantly said. She squared her shoulders and decided to ignore the flummoxed expression on his face.

“You’re not even supposed to talk to him unless it’s in behalf of Club business!”

“I know. But I had to. His gang controls Wulai District, the area where Jet was arrested. His spies said that the agents who arrested Jet have brought him to one of their safehouses in the Lower Ring. So, I think they’re still conducting the preliminary investigation.”

It was a fairly standard practice to do the initial “investigations” in Dai Li safehouses all over the city; sometimes, if the Dai Li deemed the detainee to be a low-level threat, then the entire re-education process would happen in the safehouse and the prisoner would be released without him even being sent to Lake Laogai.

“And Qiao…gave this information to you from the goodness of his heart?” Beom-pal skeptically said.

“I may have…promised to put in a good word for him to mom,” Jin said, wincing. Mimaki Qiao had an abhorrent crush on her mother and often bumbled through one horrifying attempt after another in his quest to woo her.

“Oh man…Auntie Sachi is going to _kill_ you!”

“What else was I supposed to do? It’s not like I had any money that I could use to bribe him for the information,” Jin hissed. She sighed and scrubbed a hand through her face. “Anyway, the important thing is that Jet is still in the Lower Ring which means that we still have a chance. We have to get him out before he is brought to Lake Laogai.”

Lake Laogai was the point of no return. If the Dai Li took Jet there, they didn’t even have a hope of getting him back without asking for help from the Order. The security was just too airtight to be breached.

Longshot suddenly placed a hand on her wrist and scrunched his brows together.

“What?” Jin said, confused.

“Longshot is asking…what if they already moved him to Lake Laogai today? At this very morning?” Smellerbee worriedly asked.

“When was he arrested again?” Beom-pal asked.

“Just yesterday,” Smellerbee answered.

“Then, they wouldn’t have brought him there yet. Preliminary investigation lasts for three days at the very least, even for high-level prisoners. He’s probably still in the Lower Ring,” Beom-pal said, assuredly. “They try to avoid overburdening Lake Laogai.”

“And you know this _how_?” Smellerbee asked.

“Because I’m er…training to be a Dai Li Agent,” Beom-pal sheepishly said.

“ _You_? You’re going to be a Dai Li Agent?” Smellerbee said in disbelief. Jin didn’t blame Smellerbee for her skepticism. With his goofy grin and ungainly demeanor, Beom-pal seemed nothing like the ominous and mysterious agents that populated the city.

In truth, Beom-pal only joined the Dai Li because it was the one path where he could make a name for himself and avoid the inevitable comparison with his brothers. He was the youngest scion of the Gyeongs, an old and wealthy family that originally hailed from Silla, a large principality in the province of Joseon. As the eighth brother, all other respectable or interesting posts had been filled—his older brothers had already entered into the field of law, the arts, the Earth Kingdom External Militia, sports (one of his brothers was the star player of the number one Earth Soccer Team in Ba Sing Se), the academe, engineering and medicine. Beom-pal didn’t like being in the Dai Li, but he disliked being compared to his brothers even more.

“Not officially inducted yet,” Beom-pal explained. “I’ll officially be a Dai Li Agent once I graduate from the Imperial Public Security University of Ba Sing Se*** and pass the Civil Service examinations. Right now, I’m still undergoing the Basic Field Training Course in the University’s Cadre Academy.”

“We can trust him,” Jin hastily said, noticing that Smellerbee had touched the handle of her khukri knife. “Believe me, we can. My father and Beom-pal’s dad were good friends at university. We’ve known each other since we were practically babies. This is exactly why I came to him for help.”

“But _how_ exactly can I help?” Beom-pal said. “If you’re fishing for information on which cell he’s located in, then I don’t think I can help you. Trainees aren’t allowed that sort of information and I don’t even belong to the unit which handles the district where your friend was arrested.”

An important part of the Dai Li system was that all information was not only very tightly controlled, but also highly compartmentalized and rationed, not just to the general public but also within the Dai Li itself.**** Information was kept strictly within each unit. Only Long Feng and the higher-level agents knew everything. The system was practically foolproof—it prevented leakages and if there was one, Long Feng could easily trace which unit was responsible for it. It was why the Order had to be judicious about which political targets they could smuggle out of the city. If there were too many rescues, then the Dai Li would become suspicious and any internal investigation could easily be traced back to the Beom-pal and Agent Shou Yu’s respective units. The information system of the Dai Li was so impressive that the Order had even adopted a modified version of it.

“No, no, it’s not that,” Jin said. She slipped her hand into her sleeve and pulled out a thick, piece of folded paper. She leaned forward and slowly spread it across the table.

“What’s that?” Beom-pal warily asked.

“It’s a map of the Wulai District,” she said.

It would have been better if she had the actual map of the Dai Li’s Underground System—as Master Lotus, her grandfather had a more detailed and precise copy. Jin had considered nicking it from his cabinet full of Order files but in the end, she hadn’t dared. If she showed it to Smellerbee and Longshot, they were sure to ask questions about where she had gotten it. It was better to give a vague explanation that she knew about the system through Beom-pal who was training under the Dai Li and have him be the one to explain it.

She ran her finger on a tiny square in one corner. “When I talked to Qiao, he told me that his sources saw them bring Jet in this building.”

“So, Jet’s in there?” Smellerbee excitedly asked.

“Not…quite.”

Smellerbee frowned at her. “What do you mean?”

“She means that he’s probably _underneath_ it,” Beom-pal said.

“What?”

Beom-pal clamped his mouth shut, unwilling to say more. Jin tugged at his wrist and gave him a pleading look, trying to make her eyes as big and sad as she possibly could. They engaged in a short, wordless squabble before Beom-pal sighed and rummaged through his cabinets and drawers. After a moment, he came back with a piece of parchment and positioned it on top of Jin’s map. The parchment was so thin that it was practically see-through; the detailed sketch of Wulai District’s layout was easily discernable through the paper. Beom-pal took a piece of dark chalk and began to draw a series of lines and squares until the parchment looked like a whole other map itself.

“The Dai Li holds all detainees arrested in the different rings in a series of bunkers and prison cells located underground. The entrances to this system are several strategically-placed abandoned buildings across the city,” Beom-pal explained. He switched his dark chalk for a red one and encircled a tiny square. “If Qiao saw the Dai Li bringing your friend here, then he’s most certainly not there anymore. That building is just an entrance to the prison-holds.”

“Beom-pal, you’re already in your last year at the Cadre Academy, right?”

“Right.”

“So as a senior trainee, they must have made you do patrol rounds around the _entire_ underground systems by now? Not just the area controlled by your unit?” Jin asked.

Beom-pal slowly nodded his head. “Yes. It’s an easy job to give to new agent trainees and it’s also to help us acclimate to the underground network so that we could move around the city faster.”

“So, you’ve been in this area before?”

Beom-pal seemed to have finally realized what she was thinking. He shot Smellerbee and Longshot a queasy smile and said, “Can you excuse us for a moment? I just need to talk to Jin really quickly.”

And then, without waiting for their reply, he grabbed her arm, dragged her into the far side of the room and pushed her behind his embellished dressing panel.

“Jin…this is a _terrible_ idea.”

“No, it’s not! Not if we plan well.”

“You three are planning to fight Dai Li Agents to bust your friend out. I mean, don’t get me wrong, you’re not too shabby, especially with Seiji training you. But this isn’t your average street thug. This is the Dai Li. They’re Ba Sing Se’s most _elite_ fighting force. You stand no chance,” Beom-pal said. “Why even take the risk?”

“Because he’s my friend and I don’t want to lose another person I care about to the Dai Li—‘’

“ _I’m_ your friend and I wouldn’t want you to get into trouble on my behalf—‘’

“But I would still do it anyway. And you would too.”

Beom-pal didn’t deny it.

“But…but you would be breaking the law!”

“Beom-pal, as Order initiates, we’ve already broken almost a hundred laws,” Jin pointed out.

“Oh, that’s different and you know it! What if your grandfather finds out?” he fretfully asked. It was no secret that he was absolutely terrified of her grandfather.

“Then, I’ll say sorry,” Jin simply said. She gave a small grin. “You know what they say. It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.”

And her grandfather _would_ forgive her. Jin was sure. He might give her an almighty scolding but he would carry on and get over it in the end.

“It’s still risky. And we’re going behind the Order’s back. If they find out, we could be expelled.”

“No, we won’t.” Jin gripped his hand and emphatically said, “Do you remember the third tenet?”

“What does that have to do with—‘’

“A true member who walks the path of the White Lotus develops a power that must be used for good. They have compassion. They help their fellow men at every opportunity. And if an opportunity does not arise, _they go out of their way to find one_ ,” Jin recited.*****

Beom-pal stared at her, speechless.

“Beom-pal, we both took the same oath. We are doing nothing wrong. If we do this, we are just fulfilling our sworn duty,” Jin wheedled. She squeezed his hand and looked at him pleadingly in the eyes. “Now, please, will you help us?”

Finally, he answered, “Fine. Tell me what you need so we can get this over with.”

“Wait, _we_?” Jin said.

“I’m coming with you guys,” Beom-pal said.

“No, I’ve involved you enough. I don’t want you to get into trouble,” Jin said.

Beom-pal looked at her resolutely. “If I can’t stop you then I’m going with you.”

“But—‘’

“And besides, you _need_ me. None of you are earthbenders, right? The passageway to the underground system can only be opened through earthbending,” Beom-pal explained. “Come on. What do you need?”

“Have you been to that area?”

“I’ve been assigned there at least twice now.”

Jin squared her shoulders and with a sudden, determined glint in her eyes, said, “Then, I need you to tell me everything you know about the underground systems underneath that area. How many agents guard the buildings, patrol schedules, exit and entry points, _everything_.”

* * *

“And this is the main room, where we entertain our guests,” Mayu Gyeong, the wife of one of uncle’s Pai Sho friends blathered. She spoke in a strange, affected version of the Ba Sing Se accent which Zuko supposed was prevalent among members of the nobility. She glanced at Zuko and on noticing the distracted look on his face, hastily added, “ _Modest_ , I know compared to some other people’s drawing rooms…”

Zuko tried to suppress a snort. Now, Mayu was just showing off! Although Zuko supposed that he couldn’t blame her. He was barely paying any attention, hardly even feigning interest. He could sense that Mayu thought that meant he was unimpressed.

The main room was indeed, impressive. It was big and rectangular, with a parquet floor. Three sides were glass, which made it brilliantly light, even in the dimming glow of the coming evening and offered a panoramic view of their lush, vibrant garden. There were two chairs to the north end of the room, separated by a side table—Zuko assumed that they were meant for Mister and Mrs. Gyeong whenever they received guests.

Zuko would have probably appreciated it better if he was not so consumed by the thought that his plans for rescuing Jet had hit several snags. The evening was drawing closer and he had yet to gain any meaningful progress towards figuring out where Cell 1967 was located. He had spent a good portion of his day asking around and trying to weed out any sort of information about where the Dai Li kept their prisoners. But the most he got was a rumor that prisoners were taken to a place called Lake Laogai. He would have spent the afternoon after work casing the area but his uncle forced him to go to this stupid dinner.

And of course, there was the matter of Jet’s strange connection with the Avatar’s bison. What could it possibly mean? Did it mean that the Avatar was here, somewhere in Ba Sing Se? Was Jet colluding with him? Whenever such thoughts intruded into his consciousness, Zuko would pointedly force them away. _One thing at a time_ , he told himself. First, he had to rescue Jet and then, he could pursue the lead with the bison.

“You could wait here, Grand Lotus while I introduce Lee to my son. A few other club members should start arriving soon,” Mayu said as she led Uncle Iroh to a particularly plush seat.

“Thank you, Mayu,” his uncle said, smiling. Then, to Zuko, he said, “Enjoy yourself, nephew! I’ve heard good things about Mayu’s son and think he would make great friends with you.”

Somehow, Zuko doubted that the spoiled son of a rich official would want to befriend a tea-server but Mayu was enthusiastic. She stood up and said, “Yes, my son would be happy to meet you, Lee. He has probably just gotten home from the academy. Come, I’ll introduce you to him.”

Not wanting to seem rude, Zuko stood up and reluctantly trailed after her. She led him up a massive staircase and past a balcony that was not made of usual cement, but of wood painted a greenish-gold color with intricate, patterned railings. They stopped in front of a door that had a lavish design of gye-lyongs carved on its front. Mayu rapped on it and called out, “Beom-pal!”

When no one responded, she knocked on the door again and said, “Beom-pal! Open your door! I have someone out here whom I want to introduce to you!”

There was no reply but from the outside, Zuko could here snippets of muffled conversation.

“ _Beom-pal_!” Mayu crossly said, slamming a hand against the door. “Stop being rude and come out, lest I go in there myself—‘’

“Mom, I’m in the middle of something!” a voice finally called out.

“Oh honestly!” Mayu breathed in annoyance. She twisted the door open, revealing four people hunched over a low, tea-table.

Three of them, he recognized well. Smellerbee and Longshot were there and despite fears that they would be angry with him, they simply looked nonplussed at his appearance. Beside them was Jin, who was seated next to a hardy boy. The four of them looked as though they were in the midst of a deep, drawn out conversation. When Mayu marched in, they immediately stood at attention, with Jin hastily attempting to cover the parchment with her sleeve. He noticed that as Jin formally greeted Mayu, her eyes flickered over to the boy who looked nervous and seemed to be trying to silently communicate something to her.

Hmm. Interesting.

The boy, who Zuko assumed was Beom-pal, was tall, well-built with a pleasant, open sort of face. He was also respectably dressed. Although his hair was twisted into a typical Ba Sing Se queue, he wore clothes that were traditional among the people of the Joseon Province—a fine silk _jeogori_ coupled with a loose pair of dark green _baji_. A heavy-looking jade pendant hung around his neck and on his fingers were several brightly colored rings.

“Jin! I wasn’t aware that you were already here,” Mayu said, immediately giving Jin a friendly smile.

Before Jin could reply, Mayu rounded on her son, a look of displeasure across her face.

“Beom-pal how many times have I told you not to be _alone_ in a room with Jin?” she barked. From the weary tone of her voice, it seemed as if this was a longstanding problem. “Now, I know you don’t think of each other in _that_ way—‘’

“ _Mooooom_ ,” Beom-pal whined, embarrassed. He spoke in the same lilting, exaggerated accent as his mother.

“—but it is absolutely _unseemly_ for the two of you to be alone in a room together,” Mayu finished, ignoring her son completely. “If you must entertain her, then you should bring her to the drawing room or the gardens where you are in _full view_ of other people—‘’

“By Oma and Shu, mom—‘’

“I’ve raised you better than this,” Mayu lectured. “We wouldn’t want Jin to lose face and ruin her reputation.”

“Mom, we’re not alone!” Beom-pal interjected. “My other friends are here.”

Beom-pal gestured at Smellerbee and Longshot. The two silently gazed back at Mayu with a sheepish look on their faces.

Mayu benignly smiled at them. If she was bothered by the fact that her son seemed to be hanging out with two, raggedy teenagers who looked like vagrants, she didn’t show it. She said, “Oh, hello. Welcome to our home. Has my son given you refreshments?”

“Yes. Thank you for your hospitality,” Smellerbee quickly said.

“Well, I have another person to add to your little group,” Mayu merrily said. She gestured at Zuko and added, “Beom-pal, this is Lee, Mushi’s nephew. I believe your father has already told you about our _special guest_ tonight.”

“Oh, right, yes,” Beom-pal blabbered. He turned to look at Zuko fully for the first time. “Pleased to meet you Lee—whoa—oh. _Oh_.”

Beom-pal gaped at his scar, the look of horror on his face palpable.

“I mean—oh—wow I wasn’t talking about your….I mean I was just referring to….that is your…clothes which are very stylish,” Beom-pal fumbled, nodding his head furiously. “Very stylish, indeed.”

Zuko tried to suppress an amused smile as Beom-pal gave a clumsy, apologetic half-bow. Throughout the years, he had been at the receiving end of so many reactions to his scar—curiosity, pity, horror—but those people usually did a passable job of masking their emotions. Never had he met anyone who did so poorly in covering up his reaction and yet, there was something endearing about Beom-pal’s obvious shame at being so embarrassingly transparent. His earnest attempts to rectify the situation made him immediately likable to Zuko.

“Nice to meet you,” Zuko said, bowing back.

A tinny bell suddenly rang and Mayu gave a little start.

“My goodness, it looks like they’ve finished setting up,” Mayu said. “Come along, let’s have dinner.”

“Oh no, ma’am, we couldn’t possibly impose,” Smellerbee protested.

“Nonsense, dear. You and all your friends must have dinner with us. _I insist_ ,” Mayu graciously said. With much rustling of her luxurious robes, she dragged her son forward and bustled everyone out of the room. Jin hung back, making some excuse about needing to clean up and Zuko, still curious about her odd, shifty behavior stayed behind as well.

“Lee,” she said, surprised. “Aren’t you going to follow them?”

“I’ll help you clean up.”

“Oh no, you don’t need to,” she said. She stood up in front of the table and tried cover the parchment, but being a little taller than her, Zuko still saw a part of it clearly—it looked like some sort of map. And it was a very odd map. It was very crude, as if it had just been drawn in a span of minutes. At first glance, it looked like a map of the Lower Ring but on closer examination, it seemed to be something else entirely. Zuko still had trouble navigating his way around the city but even he knew that the layout was off.

“It’s alright. I don’t mind,” Zuko shrugged.

“Don’t be silly, I can take care of this.”

“No, it’s fine, do you need help with that?”

“No!” Jin said. Then, realizing how suspicious she sounded, she quickly amended, “I mean…I can manage for myself…”

“If you say so…” Zuko said, trying to catch a better glimpse of the map. Jin was obviously taking great pains to hide it from him.

“What were Smellerbee and Longshot doing here?” he asked, trying to find an indirect way to prod her into revealing more.

“Actually er…I was just giving the two of them a tour in the Upper Ring and we ran into Beom-pal who invited us home…” she stammered.

The lie was painfully obvious. It was clear that he had caught her unawares and she was left scrambling with an excuse. Her voice was even enough but the expression in her eyes gave it away too easily. Jin had large, naturally expressive eyes and Zuko felt that no amount of restraint or control could adequately hide the emotion behind them. Briefly, he wondered if this was how Azula felt whenever he tried to outmaneuver her.

“So, what’s that you have there?”

He noted that she was discreetly trying to fold the parchment away and probably realizing that she wasn’t lying very well, switched tack and tried to distract him by giving him one of her winsome smiles. On any other day, it might have worked—Zuko had enough self-awareness to admit that her smile did have a tendency to put him a little out of sorts. But today, Zuko wasn’t having it.

“Just…a piece of Beom-pal’s homework that I was correcting. I tutor him sometimes,” Jin said. She didn’t even sound convinced by her own explanation.

Hmm. _Definitely_ hiding something.

Zuko was about to have mercy on her and allow her to continue with her terrible attempt at lying when she made the mistake of folding one corner unevenly, forcing her to unfold the parchment to fix the alignment. She tried to block a part of it with her arm but it was too late.

Zuko already saw the bright, red chalk circled around a square labeled “CHAOYANG.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Terribly sorry for the very late update. Life just unexpectedly became hectic and it’s left me with no room to think of anything else. I had finished the next three chapters but I have this thing where I don’t like to post things until I have read and edited the chapter a requisite x number of times and sadly, I wasn't able to do that, these past few months. I have more free time this January so expect updates to be weekly again for this month. Updating schedule will now be every Friday of the month.
> 
> Anyway, some notes: 
> 
> *Gye-lyong is a Korean cockatrice/rooster-dragon. It looks like [ this](https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/838302918131808697/)
> 
> ** Si Hai Bang meaning "Four Seas Gang" which is actually a real gang from Taiwan.
> 
> *** Name was inspired by the People's Public Security University of China which used to be sort of like an "FBI School."
> 
> **** The Communist regime in China really used this method of information circulation. The grading of officers determined every official's access to information.
> 
> ***** The White Lotus Tenet just comes from the Bushido Code. I think the contents of the Code would be things that the White Lotus would try to abide by.


	10. Delicate Operations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which two plans are hatched.

The dinner proceeded at an agonizingly slow pace.

There were about fifty or so people, seated around five large dining tables the Gyeongs had set up. The only ones he recognized were Leung, Dal-moon and Seok-ho. His uncle dragged him about and introduced him to person after person. Zuko stopped bothering to remember names after meeting all of Seok-ho’s sons, who were all dizzyingly named variations of “Beom.” To his disappointment, he wasn’t seated next to Jin, which made it all the more difficult for him to suss her out. His uncle received the seat of honor again and since Zuko was his nephew, he received the seat next to his uncle. His only consolation was that Jin, Beom-pal, Smellerbee and Longshot were all seated separately which meant that they couldn’t continue discussing whatever inane plan they were plotting.

And Zuko _knew_ that they were plotting something. He was already suspicious at Longshot and Smellerbee’s presence in Gyeong Mansion and at Jin and Beom-pal’s slippery behavior, but his suspicions were confirmed once he caught a proper look at that map. “CHAOYANG” the map said. It was the same building where Jet was held. It could not have been a coincidence.

Over the course of the dinner, his uncle tried several times to rope him into conversation with his friends and was a little annoyed that Zuko wasn’t even trying. Honestly, he couldn’t be bothered—he just had too many important things to think about and didn’t have time to make acquaintances with Uncle Iroh’s stupid Pai Sho friends.

Finally, the dinner ended. After having one last round of tea, Seok-ho and Uncle Iroh announced that there was to be a meeting with the Club Officers. Zuko gathered that only a select few were part of the meeting because a good number of people left and Seok-ho shooed Beom-pal, the second youngest brother Beom-hwan and Jin away.

“Go for a walk around our gardens. It’s a cool night and the plums are just about to bloom,” Seok-ho said.

“I would love to but…erm…me and Jin have three more chapters of the _Water Margin_ to look over,” Beom-pal feebly said.

“Don’t be ridiculous, they are our guests! This is not the time to be studious. You can stand to relax for a couple of hours,” Seok-ho firmly replied.

Seok-ho was very determined to foist Zuko upon Jin and Beom-pal and the two were equally determined to ditch him. They managed to get their chance by asking Beom-hwan to explain to Zuko his latest research topic. Once Zuko was trapped into a conversation with the older boy, Jin immediately made some sort of excuse about going to the bathroom. Before he knew it, all four of them had gone away, leaving him alone with Beom-hwan.

Beom-hwan droned on and on about his latest dissertation. He was finishing his bachelors in anthropology and had many opinions about a variety of equally boring topics. Talking to Beom-hwan was like being caught in a spinning wheel—when you were in, you were in _forever_ and had little hope of escape.

Fed up, Zuko decided to just interrupt him and shortly said, “I’m going to the bathroom too.”

“But—‘’

Zuko turned away before Beom-hwan could trap him even further. He slipped into a small passageway and stood there for a moment, trying to figure out where Jin and everyone else had gone. Remembering Mayu’s pointed comment about propriety, he decided to check the gardens first and quietly walked around the area.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he found the four of them seated on drum-shaped stone stools under a thick trellis of wisteria. He knew that going there and speaking to them wouldn’t help if he wanted to get information; they would just make up excuses and try to send him away again. He was going to have to find a way to eavesdrop without getting noticed.

Spying on a mulberry tree overlooking where Jin and the rest were sitting, Zuko darted forward and in quick, precise movements, clambered up and settled himself on a sturdy branch. He looked down and was pleased to see that he now had a better view of the map.

“Okay, so before we go any further, I think we should review what we have so far,” Jin said, taking on a surprisingly businesslike tone.

Everyone nodded and gave murmurs of assent.

“So, Qiao’s men reported that Jet was taken to Chaoyang Building. There are usually four to six Dai Li Agents inside. They stay there to do some paperwork and guard the entrance,” Jin began.

“In order for you and Beom-pal to get in, me and Longshot will cause a distraction by setting off a series of small bombs, just loud enough to cause a commotion in this other abandoned building at the parallel street,” Smellerbee continued.

“Me and Jin slip inside and I earthbend the passageway to the underground system open,” Beom-pal said.

 _Earthbending_! So that was why it seemed as if Jet had disappeared into the building. The prison-holds were underground and the Dai Li earthbent a passage to get there.

“Once we’re in, I think we could reasonably avoid the Dai Li…Beom-pal said that they only patrol the passageways every other hour,” Jin said. She frowned and tapped a finger against her chin. “However, that would also leave us with a window of just _one_ hour. We need to be in and out of the building within that timeframe, with another distraction going off at the end so we could leave the underground unimpeded.”

“Will we also be using Chaoyang as an exit point?” Smellerbee asked. “Because creating two incidents around the same building to cause a distraction will be suspicious….”

“Well…it will depend on which cell Jet is being held,” Jin uncertainly said.

“Which brings us to the yet unresolved issue of where Jet’s _exact_ cell is. If we don’t know it, the whole plan could fall apart,” Beom-pal pointed out. “The underground system stretches on for more than three _li_ in the Wulai District alone. It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

“But aren’t the files kept in the building? Can’t we look for it before going down?” Jin asked.

“We could…but that would be a bad idea. I’m sure several new arrests would have happened by now. His record will be buried so it’s going to take a while to find it. And with the timeframe we’re working with, trying to look for it before going underground could get us caught,” Beom-pal said.

Before he could stop himself, Zuko blurted out, “That won’t be a problem.”

“ _Ahhhh_!” Beom-pal screeched, holding his hands out in a defensive stance and looking vaguely petrified at the sight of a shadowed man perched on a tree.

“Lee?” Jin’s already large eyes were as round as saucers. “What are you doing up there?”

Zuko flushed, slightly embarrassed to be caught lurking around. Noiselessly, he dropped down from the branch and attempted to deflect Jin’s question. “Never mind me. What are _you_ four doing?”

Jin tried to cover the map again and defensively shot back, “I asked you first.”

“But I _found_ you first,” Zuko replied. Before she could say anything back, he added, “Anyway, no need to tell me. I already know what you guys are up to. And I want in.”

“In what?” Smellerbee nervously said. “We aren’t trying to do anything.”

“Don’t bother,” Zuko said, coming up to sit on the empty stone drum next to Jin. “I heard everything.”

“ _Heard everything?_ Were you eavesdropping on us from that tree?” Jin demanded as Zuko whacked her arm away and examined the map more closely.

“Oh, don’t get into a strop,” he irritably said. He didn’t appreciate the tone of her voice. She had no right to speak in such an accusing manner—she was the one masterminding an illegal prison break around here! “You four weren’t very quiet anyway!”

“That’s because we didn’t expect anyone to go so far as to snoop about _from a tree,_ ” Jin indignantly said. “First Jet, now you too. What is it with you guys and _sneaking_? Are all the boys from outside the wall this nosy?”

“I was not being nosy!” Zuko glared at her in full offense, thoroughly affronted at even being placed in the same category as Jet.

“Yes, you _are_ nosy. Only a dreadfully nosy snoop would climb a tree just so he could listen in, on people’s private conversations. How long were you up there anyway?” Jin asked.

“Long enough,” he answered. “And I told you. I want to join you guys.”

“You want to help us rescue Jet?” Jin disbelievingly said.

“Of course.”

Nobody said anything for a while. Concerned, Zuko tore his gaze away from the map and saw that they were all looking at him, stunned.

“What?” Zuko said, suddenly feeling a little self-conscious.

“You want to help us rescue, Jet…” Jin slowly repeated.

“Yes. What about it?” Zuko impatiently asked.

“He tried to have you arrested by the Dai Li,” Jin pointed out.

“And then attacked you,” Smellerbee said.

“Unprovoked,” Jin added.

“And he also stalked you for about a month,” Smellerbee said.

“He _what_?” Beom-pal exclaimed. He looked from Jin to Zuko in complete befuddlement. “Do you mean to tell me that the guy we’re going through all this trouble to rescue is a violent stalker who randomly attacks people without cause?”

Jin wisely chose not to answer this question. Instead, she furrowed her brow and said, “Why would you help Jet, Lee? He has been harassing you non-stop since you got here.”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I want him dead or turned into a mushy-brained puppet,” Zuko said, feeling a little offended.

Honestly, what did she think of him? That he would gleefully sanction the death of someone just because he _disliked_ them? Jet was annoying and once all this was over, Zuko wanted nothing to do with him. But he hardly thought that death or mindbending was a commensurate penalty to all of Jet’s antics.

“And besides, it’s just the right thing to do,” he firmly said. “So, as I was saying—what?”

Jin was staring at him with an indecipherable expression on her face. If he didn’t know any better, he would have thought that it was awe or admiration.

“What?” he repeated.

“N-Nothing,” Jin mumbled, reddening. She had the distinct look of someone who had been caught out.

“You’re a little red.”

“I’m just feeling a bit hot.”

“It’s evening and we’re in the middle of spring,” Zuko pointed out.

“What’s with all the questions? Must you snoop about in this too?”

“I’m not trying to snoop into anything!”

“Then drop it, Mr. Nosypants,” Jin said. She turned away from him, her face still flushed. Zuko frowned at her in confusion. Why was she blushing? Was it something he said?

Agni, she was weird.

“Anyway, as I was saying,” Zuko continued when Jin said nothing more. “You guys don’t have to worry about finding the cell number where Jet is being held. Because I know _exactly_ where it is.”

* * *

  
The dinner went by swimmingly although if Iroh had one complaint, it would be that he had failed in his mission to acquaint Zuko with all the other Order members. Although Zuko wasn’t ready to be an initiate yet, Iroh thought that it would be good to start easing his nephew into the Order by familiarizing him with all the members of the Ba Sing Se Chapter. In typical Zuko fashion, his nephew hardly even bothered to feign polite interest towards the other guests.

His only consolation was that throughout the entire dinner, Zuko never once took his eyes off Jin. In between bites of _kimchi_ and _yukgaejang_ , his nephew would peer into Jin’s direction and fix his eyes upon her with an intent gaze. The sight alone was enough to make Iroh forget about his annoyance. Could it be that his nephew had finally started to exhibit normal, healthy teenage behavior such as a crush? Agni above, Iroh could weep! And to think, he didn’t even need to put any of his matchmaking skills to the test.

What was more, when Seok-ho suggested that his nephew take a walk around the gardens with Jin and Beom-pal, Zuko didn’t even need prompting. The boy practically leapt towards Jin and eagerly assented. He and Seok-ho stood on the porch and waited until all the children had turned and disappeared past a dense copse of white-edged morning glory before making their way to the reliquary.

“In here, Grand Lotus,” Seok-ho said.

He led Iroh past a courtyard into a wall that led to a massive open area and gestured at a doorway that led to a large, enclosed space that looked to be some sort of training grounds. On the walls and set against the rows of bleachers were bright green banners, embossed with the gye-lyong, the Gyeong Family’s official crest.

“We’ve moved the entrance to the reliquary underneath the training grounds because even the servants don’t frequent this place,” Seok-ho explained. “Probably because there is always someone practicing and the servants don’t want to be chucked with rocks.”

Knowing that the man enjoyed being praised, Iroh stroked his beard and genially said, “This is certainly very impressive. Not everyone has a mini-arena in their own backyard.”

Seok-ho flushed, clearly pleased at receiving a compliment from such a high-ranking member. “Well, we thought of putting one up, especially since all eight of my sons are earthbenders. They can be extremely rowdy, especially when they’re having their lessons. Better to contain their damage to one area.”

“ _Eight_? And all boys too! No wonder why you are so prosperous!” Iroh said, recalling that in the Earth Kingdom, eight was an extremely lucky and auspicious number. Privately, he wondered if Mayu and Seok-ho just kept going until they had eight sons, in a superstitious attempt to bolster their fortunes. He surmised that Mayu was the mother of all eight—as far as he knew, Seok-ho never took any concubines and Mayu was far too old to be a second wife.

Seok-ho bowed several times and feigned humility, although he made no true move to deflect the praise. With his earthbending, he opened a small passage that led deep underground and into a long corridor lit by faint, green lamps. The passageway ended in a heavy-looking door carved with intricate designs of the White Lotus. Seok-ho pushed the door open and it swung inward majestically. Iroh walked into a large, circular room with an unexpectedly high, domed ceiling and found himself breathing the delicious mildewy fragrance of old books.

On one half of the walls were rows upon rows of books and scrolls, stacked from the top all the way to the bottom. The other half held shelves loaded with strange implements and piled with jars, tins and odd-shaped glassware. On closer examination, Iroh realized that they seemed to be all manner of artifacts and relics. Tall wooden ladders with wheels, perfect for reaching the upper shelves, were neatly placed along the side of the wall. The room stood in the middle and at the very bottom of about three floors, with each floor being likewise filled with books, scrolls and artifacts. At the center was a large carved table where several senior members, including Leung, were already seated.*

Iroh let out a surprised gasp. The place was _amazing_.

“They tasked my family with keeping the Order’s reliquary here in Ba Sing Se. It’s because I have the biggest estate, even among the more affluent members,” Seok-ho proudly said. “My family takes this job _very seriously._ My grandfather even studied heritage preservation and conversation in the university so all the books and artifacts are kept in tiptop shape. We know how important it is to safeguard all the knowledge the Order has accumulated over the centuries.”

“It’s all very impressive,” Iroh sincerely said. The Caldera Chapter similarly kept a reliquary in Piandao’s own estate, although it was nowhere near as impressive as this one. There must be over a thousand books and artifacts alone in this room. And he had no doubt that this wasn’t everything—aside from the fact that there were three floors overall, there were about four open archways that branched out into other passageways indicating to Iroh that the reliquary stretched far beyond this area.

“It’s the work of generations. An archive of everything we’ve found and learned since the Ba Sing Se Chapter of the Order was established,” Seok-ho said. “Right now, the one managing the collection and taking care of everything is Mizunuma. If you need to find a book or a relic, he’s the person to look for. Oh, you should probably meet him! I’m sure he would be happy to see you.”

Seok-ho eagerly led him to a man who was busily fussing over one of the leather-bound books. Seok-ho called his name and the man looked up in surprise. Immediately, Iroh noticed that there was something different about his appearance. The paleness of his skin, the sharpness of his features, the glint of his pale, _golden eyes_ …

The man bowed, Fire Nation-style, completely cementing Iroh’s suspicions.

“Mizunuma! Look who’s finally come over,” Seok-ho excitedly said.

Mizunuma’s mouth widened into an exuberant smile.

“I don’t think we’ve ever been introduced, Grand Lotus. I wasn’t at the dinner tonight. My name is Huang Mizunuma,” he said, speaking in Fire Tongue.

“You’re from the Fire Nation!” Iroh excitedly said, switching to Fire Tongue as well. Agni, it felt good to speak the language of his birth home out loud.

The man shook his head. “Not quite.”

“What do you mean?” Iroh asked, confused.

“My mother was from the Fire Nation while my father was from the Earth Kingdom. Before moving here, they lived in one of the colonies. But I spent most of my childhood here, in Ba Sing Se,” he said.

“You speak Fire Tongue so well despite having grown up in the Earth Kingdom all your life,” Iroh said.

Indeed, Mizunuma’s grasp of the language was particularly impressive, especially since he seamlessly used formal speech and never once faltered. Fire Tongue was notoriously difficult for most outsiders to master because it was extremely hierarchical—the Earth Kingdom also had their own version of “courteous language” of course, but it was reserved only for the highest officials and was hardly used. And on the rare occasion it was employed, one generally stopped using it once the other speaker indicated that he wished to be spoken to informally. In the Fire Nation however, such a thing would not be possible, even at the urging of the other conversant; to do so would be to risk “speaking out of place.”

“Thank you, Grand Lotus. My mother made sure I would never forget my Fire Nation heritage,” Mizunuma said.

“Mizunuma is the one heading membership formation here in the Ba Sing Se Chapter,” Seok-ho explained. “We’ve been meaning to introduce you two for a while but never found the time.”

“I’m so pleased to meet you my friend,” Iroh said, clasping Mizunuma’s hands together. Once they made contact, Iroh’s skin was filled with that familiar heat, the kind that could only come from a firebender’s hands.

“Likewise,” Mizunuma said. “You have no idea. It’s so good to finally meet someone who’s like me.”

They made small talk until a gong sounded. Iroh, Seok-ho and Mizunuma quickly took their places on the table. As the Master of Ceremonies, Seok-ho formally opened the meeting by leading everyone in a recitation of the White Lotus Oath and Tenets. As soon as they were finished, Leung marched to the front, a thick scroll in his hand.

“Right. Let’s start,” he said in his usual no-nonsense manner. He turned to face Iroh and made a deep bow. “Grand Lotus, ten-thousand fortunes! I humbly greet you. If it pleases you, may I take charge of this meeting?”

“You may. And not just for this, but for the whole of Ba Sing Se’s operations as well,” Iroh replied.

Leung had the title of Master Lotus, which was just one rank below Iroh’s. As such, Order rules dictated that Iroh had supreme authority over every member and if Leung wanted to continue exercising leadership prerogative, he had to formally ask Iroh. The request, however, was just for show. The two of them had already agreed beforehand that despite Iroh’s presence, Leung would to continue to be the Ba Sing Se Chapter’s _de facto_ leader. He had been leading the Chapter for decades now so it made more sense that he would continue to oversee its operations, rather than someone who was a virtual stranger.

In any case, Iroh always felt odd whenever the man showed even the slightest deference to him. It didn’t matter that they were both already old men—the fact that Leung was around twenty years older meant that Iroh will always feel a little like a boy when standing before him.

“First order of business, introductions,” Leung said. Iroh stood up and turned to genially face the rest of the senior members. There were ten or so of them, all of whom Iroh was vaguely familiar with.

“I’m sure you’ve already heard that a Grand Lotus has come to Ba Sing Se. May I introduce you all to Grand Lotus _Mushi_.”

Among the many things Leung and Iroh had talked about during Jin’s recital was the matter of Iroh’s true identity. The Siege had happened just six years ago and nearly all the members were veterans or knew someone who were veterans of the Siege. And as Leung bluntly pointed out, Iroh’s attempt to burn their beloved city to the ground was not likely to be forgiven or even forgotten by the entire Chapter _for a very long time.**_

Iroh wisely decided to take Leung’s council of keeping his true identity a secret. One day, he would formally make amends to all the citizens of Ba Sing Se. But for now, the interests of the Order were paramount and as Leung rightly pointed out, revealing his true identity would only serve to sow division and discord in the Ba Sing Se Chapter.

“He will be staying here in the city for a while so I would like you all to be welcoming to our new brother,” Leung said.

Iroh gave a deep bow. “Thank you for having me, brothers. I hope to do great work with you all while I’m here.”

Everyone warmly greeted him and bowed back. Iroh smiled in return before shuffling back to his seat, content.

“Next…recruitment,” Leung said, unfurling the scroll and reading from it. “So far, this month, we have received two petitions from Order members for two initiates. Dal-moon, how goes the investigation?”

Dal-moon, who was the officer in charge of the entire recruitment and initiation process, leaned over and handed two, thick scrolls to Leung. “We have finished the preliminary interviews and investigations and have compiled the results in these reports. All we need now is for it to be reproduced and circulated among everyone in the Order so we can call for a ballot.”

Iroh listened silently, not particularly surprised by the Ba Sing Se Chapter’s Recruitment process. The Caldera Chapter had a similar system. The recruitment process varied from place to place, subject only to the general rule that a person can only become an initiate once a member petitioned for him. The Caldera Chapter also had a balloting process but because they were several fractions smaller, the information regarding a prospective initiate could easily be circulated to the members without the need of any sort of report.***

Leung grabbed the two scrolls and read it over quickly before nodding his head, satisfied. “Good, good. These two sound promising. Very well, I’ll have Jin make copies in the shop and distribute them as soon as they can.”

He placed the scrolls aside and added, “Any new petitions for initiates?”

“Just one, from Seiji. We haven’t launched an investigation yet,” Dal-moon said. “Didn’t you say you were planning to petition for an initiate as well, Master Lotus?”

Leung nodded his head in confirmation. “Yes. It’s that skinny friend of Jin’s who never talks. The one she brought over tonight. He has good potential. Calm, sensible and is shaping up to be a very wise person. I would still need to observe him some more though, before I make any decision.”

“Alright,” Dal-moon answered.

“Next order of business…communications,” Leung said. He gestured at a tall, reedy man with pale, grey eyes. “Yangtso, any new messages for the Order?”

Yangtso stood up and cleared his throat before saying, “Just one from Fung of the Si Wong Desert Chapter. He had two things of note to say. First, he asked for confirmation that the Grand Lotus had been settled safely into the city. Second, he passed along a message from Professor Zei who profusely thanked us for helping him get out of Ba Singe Se.”

“Pah! Bother that fool!” Leung waspishly said. “He _better be_ thankful. Two of our members nearly got caught in that mission! Never have I met such a useless, moronic individual. Our operatives practically had to _carry_ him out of this city.”

“Yes…but be that as it may, you have to admit that Professor Zei’s staunch refusal to kowtow to Long Feng’s demands is admirable,” Mizunuma said.

At Iroh’s questioning glance, Seok-ho explained, “Professor Zei heads the anthropology department of Ba Sing Se University. He became a target of the Dai Li after he refused to hand over certain information.”

“The formal charge was ‘Intellectual Suppression,’” Dal-moon snorted. “Imagine that. The _Dai Li_ of all people, accusing someone of intellectual suppression.”

“What kind of information did they want?” Iroh asked.

Leung pressed his lips together and said, “You know, we never did get to find out what the Dai Li wanted, did we?”

Another senior member spoke up, “No. The operatives who handled his escape stated that Professor Zei refused to say. And they were all in such a hurry anyway that there was hardly enough time to ask him more about it. Agent Shou Yu also could not get access to the files because the case belonged to another unit.”

“We could contact Fung to see if he can find out more?” Seok-ho suggested.

“Yes, that would be good,” Leung said. “Yangtso, tell Fung to look into it.”

“And also….it would be good for us to be…sensitive in our response. Perhaps, you should tell him that the Order is happy and honored for the appreciation he has expressed towards us, Warden Lotus Yangtso****” Mizunuma diplomatically added.

Yangsto nodded, looking a little afraid that Leung would argue. Thankfully, the old man chose not to press the issue and instead, held the scroll up and gruffly said, “Well, whatever. Just respond to that idiot as you please, Yangtso. Next on the agenda….hm…”

Leung gestured at a silent, stony-faced man with a thin scar running down the right side of his face. He said, “This one is a bit tricky. It will be probably be easier if Agent Shou Yu explains. Agent Shou Yu, you have the floor.”

Agent Shou Yu stood up and gave a deep bow. “Thank you, Master Lotus.”

He turned slightly to the side to address the room and said, “Recently, I have managed to gather intelligence from the Dai Li that the Avatar is here in Ba Sing Se.”

Iroh stilled, feeling a small wave of panic bloom across his chest. He already had his suspicions when he and Jin saw the bison move across the sky in the ferry. But to have it confirmed troubled him immensely. Zuko was finally starting to adjust to living a life of Ba Sing Se. Any news that the Avatar was in the city would send his nephew on another aimless search and destroy whatever relative peace they had. Of the millions of cities in the Earth Kingdom, why did the Avatar have to choose this one to traipse around in?

“So, it is true…” Seok-ho said wonderingly. “The entire Upper Ring had been hearing rumors for weeks on end but nothing had been confirmed. You have no idea how worked up everyone here is. To have the Avatar in your dinner table would be the greatest social accomplishment. We’ve all been trying to one-up each other and get information on where he might be …”

“No one is getting any information because Long Feng is trying to keep it a secret from the city. He doesn’t want people to know,” Agent Shou Yu said.

“And why not?” Leung sarcastically asked. “Isn’t he happy that he has another pet dog-bear aside from the Earth King to announce to the people just how _glorious and peaceful_ our city is?”

“The Avatar is…erm… _difficult_ ,” Agent Shou Yu carefully said. “And he has plans of contacting the Earth King to ask for Ba Sing Se’s army to invade the Fire Nation. Long Feng is afraid that if news gets out, it might cause a commotion and get some support…support big enough to get even the Earth King to listen.”

“Where is he staying? Is he staying here, in the Upper Ring?” Seok-ho asked, a little too eagerly.

“I’ll give you all the address but it’s no use trying to visit him. He’s under close surveillance by the Dai Li. They are watching him _twenty-four-seven_. A Joo Dee has also been assigned to relentlessly tail him and his group,” Agent Shou Yu said.

“So, would you say that making _private_ contact with the Avatar will be difficult?” Leung asked.

Agent Shou Yu shot them a grim look. “Not just difficult. _Impossible_. They’re using the ‘two greens sandwiching a black’ method, but on a more intense scale. All the neighbors of the _entire bloc_ surrounding the house where he lives is a civilian spy loyal to the Dai Li. There are also several Dai Li agents watching his every move from the rooftops. He was told that he could go wherever he wanted. But a Joo Dee is always with him along with several agents secretly tailing him. And trying to slip a message through the servants won’t help either. All the servants in the Avatar’s household have been mindbent to immediately report any suspicious activity. The Dai Li has made it so that _everything_ goes through them…letters, food, visitors….”

“Can’t you arrange for yourself to be in the Avatar’s security detail, Agent Shou Yu?” Yangtso asked.

Agent Shou Yu shrugged. “I’ll try but I don’t want to get your hopes up. The Dai Li Agents Long Feng assigned to guard the Avatar are his most trusted people. He knows how important it is to keep the Avatar from finding outside help. He won’t trust the task to anyone but his inner circle.”

“But why hasn’t the Avatar tried to fight them?” Seok-ho asked. “Surely, he could just use his…er…Avatar powers to do _something_ to get the Dai Li to back off.”

“It’s the bison, isn’t it?” Leung shrewdly said.

“The bison? What do you mean?” Iroh asked, confused. What did the Avatar’s bison have to do with the Dai Li?

“About a month ago, we received intel that the Dai Li had captured a flying bison,” Leung said. “Seeing as the only person in the world who seems to have one is the Avatar, we rightly guessed that it must have been his. Long Feng must be using it to bring the Avatar to heel.”

“Yes, Master Lotus,” Agent Shou Yu said. “The Avatar is _attached_ to the bison. Long Feng is using it as leverage to get the Avatar to cooperate.”

“So, the best way to break Long Feng’s grip on the Avatar is to reunite him with his bison,” Mizunuma said.

“Then…should we rescue the bison?” Iroh asked.

“It will be difficult. We have considered breaking it out many times since we received the news,” Leung explained. “But we always ran into the same problems. Breaching Lake Laogai is no problem. We are prepared to risk it and we have done so before. But this is not like breaking out some political prisoner. Every time we plan, we always encounter the same questions. Okay, we find the bison. _But then, what?_ Can we fight our way out with a thing that big…especially since it’s the Dai Li’s stronghold? And if we somehow managed to break it out, how can we hide a creature that size? Or get him away from the city, back to the Avatar, undetected? Could we even control it? Eventually, we decided that it wouldn’t be prudent to try. Such a plan risked too much exposure and capture for our members.”

“But with the Avatar here, many of those problems will be resolved,” Dal-moon pointed out. “We wouldn’t need to hide it anywhere because we would just be giving it back to him. And we won’t have the problem of control because the Avatar will be there to rein the creature in.”

“There is still the matter of breaking in and then out, of Lake Laogai. With a thousand-pound bison no less,” Leung dryly said.

“Yes,” Mizunuma said. “It doesn’t matter how good our operatives are. Even if we managed to get in, dragging that animal out might be impossible. The Dai Li would eventually catch up to us and we would be overwhelmed. If they get captured, the Order is sure to be exposed.”

“We could…ask the Avatar for help,” one of the senior members hesitantly suggested. “Surely, he has some skills that would help us fight the Dai Li.”

“Grand Lotus, you have met the Avatar on many occasions. What do you think?” Leung asked.

“The Avatar is indeed very powerful. He is skilled, well-trained and above all, ingenious and adept at managing high-stake situations. But I would be prudent about staking too much of your plan on his ‘powers.’ You must all remember that he is still a child,” Iroh said.

He paused and looked at the ornate artifacts on the shelves, deep in thought.

“Still…it is not a bad idea to contact the Avatar and tell him where his bison is,” Iroh finally added. “He deserves to know. The bison is the poor child’s only living connection to his Air Nomad heritage. How the Avatar wishes to proceed once we give him this information will determine the next course of our actions.”

“Then, the initial plan must be to make contact with the Avatar,” Leung said. A ghost of a smile spread across his lips. “This is a very good development. If all goes well, we might finally be able to overturn the city’s Isolationist Policy.”

“We’ve been trying for years,” Seok-ho explained to Iroh. “But the political situation here is…ah… _complex_. Long Feng has the Earth King virtually under lock and key. And he also has the support of several important families in the nobility.”

“But if we have the Avatar on side, then we might finally be able to make progress,” Leung said. He clapped his hands together and looked around the room. “Alright, then. The first thing we need to do is find a way to get a message to the Avatar. I don’t want this information circulating around the entire Order just yet. This requires _delicate operations_. The information will only be given to a select few members who live in the Upper Ring, with the understanding that their mission will be to try to slip a message to the Avatar. Seok-ho, will you handle it?”

Seok-ho nodded. “Yes, Master Lotus.”

“Are we all in agreement?” Leung asked, looking around the room.

There was a chorus of “ayes.” The scribe took everyone’s votes before announcing, “Resolved. That the Order will attempt to make contact with the Avatar to give him information about his bison. Warden Lotus Seok-ho will be in charge of the operations.”

The Scribe raised the gavel and was about to slam it against the table when Iroh said, “Wait! I have a request to ask of all of you.”

They all looked at him, curious.

“Anything, Grand Lotus,” Leung said.

“It’s a little strange…”

“If it is within our power, we will endeavor to do it,” Leung said.

“My nephew has befriended the initiates, Jin and Beom-pal. And doubtless, he will make many more,” Iroh said. “I would like for all of you to tell any members and initiates who know about the Avatar and the bison to _not breathe a word of it to my nephew_.”

Everyone looked at him, completely baffled at the grave, pleading tone of his voice. Iroh hardly blamed them. His request was admittedly odd.

“You shouldn’t worry Grand Lotus,” Mizunuma attempted to say. “I mean…we know your nephew hasn’t been initiated yet. All members know and have sworn not to divulge confidential Order information to outsiders.”

“Yes, I know,” Iroh said. “But my nephew has had a hard time and I would like for him to have a peaceful, normal life before I involve him in the Order. I have faith that every member in this Chapter follows their oath strictly. But it would make me feel better if you all swore to impress upon your members and initiates the importance of not telling any of this to Lee.”

He gave an extremely, low bow. “Please indulge in this old man’s request.”

For a while, no one said anything. Finally, Leung spoke up, “Of course, Grand Lotus. We will make sure that the Avatar’s presence will not find its way to Lee. We swear on all that is holy and scared to the Order.”

Iroh breathed a relieved sigh, happy with the knowledge that he could keep Zuko away from trouble and allow him to be a normal teenager, at least for a little while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some thoughts:
> 
> As much as I find the Order of the White Lotus cool, their role in the series has always been so baffling to me. I mean, what did they even DO before Iroh calls them to free Ba Sing Se? I mean I know they are about Truth and Philosophy and Beauty and they look out for each other. But what does that really mean? Are they just a glorified pen pal club? At first, I thought that was the case and they didn't really have any military capabilities. But then Iroh managed to summon an entire army in the finale, so that begs the question, if they could do that, why the hell did they wait for the last minute to show up and actually do something meaningful? Anyway, that's just my two cents about their role in the series which is why they're going to have a bigger role and be more political in this fic. The Ba Sing Se Chapter at least is trying to undermine the Dai Li's crazy policies and tries their best to protect political prisoners.
> 
> Some notes:
> 
> *I like the idea of them having a big library and reliquary just crammed with books and artifacts. According to canon, OWL apparently started out as an organization concerned with searching for knowledge so I figured they would keep a trove that pools together whatever knowledge they have learned. The Ba Sing Se Chapter has the biggest and most impressive reliquary because having not been touched by war, everything they've gathered is still intact. That and the fact that they probably have the biggest population of all OWL Chapters.
> 
> **The Siege happened six years ago so I think realistically, not everyone would be okay with Iroh. I've always wondered how other OWL members felt about him being a Grand Lotus. In philosophy, it's easy to say that OWL transcends national and political divides but the reality is not always so clear cut. I imagine that if everyone in the organization knew who he truly was, a lot of them would be pissed at him and would be recalcitrant about having him as a leader.
> 
> ***On the matter of initiation into OWL, I've patterned it after the initiation process in Freemasonry which was another secret society. In Freemasonry, investigations really are made on you to see if you're the right fit for the organization and after the investigation is done, a ballot is taken. In Freemasonry, you need an endorsement from a member and it's the same here for OWL. Which gives you a rough idea of why there are so many generational members. Naturally, if you are an OWL member, the first person you will think of recruiting are your family members which is why in this fic, a lot of the characters' families (like Jin's and Beom-pal's) have been members in the organization for generations. 
> 
> ****Also just followed Freemasonry ranks and degrees for OWL. Wardens are actually the rank of high officers.
> 
> So, anyway that's it for now. Excited to show you guys the next chapter. I considered having Zuko train Jin but in the interest of streamlining the story, I'm going to have her be somewhat skilled in fighting already. I think that makes much more sense anyway, because I imagine that the Order would want to give their members some basic training, especially since in-show, they have their own fighting force.
> 
> With that being said, any idea what Jin's chosen weapon is? [HINT: It's related to her dance form hahaha]


	11. In and Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jin and company stage a prison-break.

By the time they went to rescue Jet, the moon had already disappeared into the clouds, plunging the entire city into swathes of darkness. Zuko took it as an auspicious sign that Agni himself had seen it fit to bless their endeavor by making it easier for them to remain hidden.

He told Jin as much but that didn’t seem to assure her.

Outwardly, she held herself with surprisingly perfect calm although Zuko noticed that her face was pale and her hands were trembling with nervous energy. Zuko placed a hand over hers, intending to still it but Jin must have mistaken his gesture as an attempt to hold her. She twined her fingers around his and placed them in a cold, clammy grip. Zuko frowned at her and made a move to snatch his hand back. But the look on her eyes were so plaintive that he immediately felt monstrous for even thinking about it. Gruffly, he looked away and pretended to be transfixed at the grout on the ceiling.

The four of them had decided to rendezvous in the abandoned, uppermost floor of Chaoyang Building—it was better than meeting anywhere near their apartments where prying eyes might make the connection to their true identities. Thankfully, everyone had the good sense to dress appropriately. Jin, Smellerbee and Longshot wore black, form-fitting clothes that looked easy to move around in. Instead of her usual braids, Jin had tied her hair up in a neat bun and pinned all of her bangs back. Attached to her hip was a coil of rope that looked like a _sheng biao_ or a rope dart—on one end of the rope was a metal handle and on the other, a sharp, shiny dagger fastened with a brightly colored green flag. Zuko stared at it in curiosity, wondering if she knew how to use it or if she was just a beginner who brought it along as an extra precaution.

A slight noise rustled from the outside. All of four of them whipped their heads to the side, where they found Beom-pal attempting to force himself through the window.

“Beom-pal!” Jin brightly said.

Beom-pal gave her a shaky smile as he silently dropped into the room and dusted himself off. He was also dressed in black and his hair, which had been in a braid, was kept in a tight knot at the base of his head. He earthbent the rock gloves wrapped around his hands off and peered about the room, looking ten times more nervous than Jin.

“Finally! It took you long enough,” Zuko waspishly said. All four of them had arrived over an hour ago and had simply sat there, waiting for Beom-pal to arrive.

“Sorry, sorry,” Beom-pal sheepishly said as he scratched the back of his head. “I had trouble finding my way to the building and I was just using public transportation. I’m a complete mess whenever I come around here without our driver.”

“I don’t blame you,” Zuko muttered, softening a little. He pushed himself off the crate he had been sitting on and awkwardly disentangled his hand from Jin’s. “This stupid city is arranged in the most senseless fashion possible.”

Jin made a sound of protest although mercifully, she said nothing more. Beom-pal tentatively moved forward and stood behind Jin, almost as if he wanted her to shield him. He was quivering badly and looked as though he was afraid that at any minute, a Dai Li agent would suddenly come popping out from the shadows.

In a timorous voice, he asked, “So…um…are we starting?”

Smellerbee shrugged, “I guess. The next hour is about to begin so me and Longshot can get going. It should take me about ten minutes to get to the next building and cause the distraction.”

They made a move to go but Zuko held his hand up and said, “Wait!”

Smellerbee and Longshot paused while Zuko moved to the corner and grabbed the russack he had brought along with him. Leaning down, he began to pull out several, brightly colored-masks and handed them over to everyone. To Jin, he passed along a demonic-looking cat mask that reminded him of Fire Nation _bakenekos_ and _nekomatas_. Beom-pal received a fearsome-looking rooster mask while Smellerbee and Longshot received a yellow and black “broken-flower face” opera mask and Noh mask respectively. 

“If we are ever seen we don’t want anyone to know our identities. The masks will conceal who we are,” Zuko explained. He pulled out his own Blue Spirit mask and fastened it across his face.

Beom-pal excitedly turned his mask over in his hands while Smellerbee and Longshot looked at theirs with interest. Only Jin looked uncertain. She frowned at her mask, a vaguely worried expression mapped across her face.

“What is it?” Zuko demanded.

“It’s just that….these sort of look like Spirits,” Jin said.

“And so?”

“So, won’t the Spirits be offended if we masquerade as them?” Jin fretfully asked. Zuko took stock of the genuine concern in her voice and realized that she must be one of those spiritual types.

“Don’t worry,” Zuko soothingly said. “It’s just to hide our identities. We’re not acting in their name or pretending to be Spirits. If people see us as such, then it’s on them. It’s not as if we’re desecrating holy grounds or anything like that.”

Jin seemed mollified by his explanation and quickly put her mask on. The moment it was on her face, she examined her reflection on the dirty windows and suddenly made a giddy little movement with her hands.

“By Oma and Shu, we look _so_ cool!” Jin gushed.

Across her, Beom-pal eagerly nodded his head and said, “I know! We look pretty intimidating!”

“Like those bandits or heroes in plays,” Jin said, leaning back and raising her arm in a truly ridiculous pose.

Zuko opened his mouth, ready to tell her that she looked stupid when Beom-pal suddenly crouched down in front of her and placed a hand over his face in a pantomime of a mysterious, heroic stance.

“I know right? If only Qiu were here to draw a picture of us,” Beom-pal said, the beak of his mask flopping wildly about.

“Oh, oh, if we’re trying to keep our identities a secret, do you think we should come up with codenames?” Jin said.

“Having codenames _would_ be awesome,” Beom-pal agreed. “The Dai Li uses codenames during some of their more secret, important operations!”

“What do you think mine should be?” Jin eagerly asked as she bounced up and down.

“Nothing,” Zuko flatly said.

“My codename should be “Nothing”? That doesn’t sound very exciting,” Jin said.

“No, I mean we don’t need codenames because we’re not supposed to be addressing each other!” Zuko impatiently said. “We should avoid doing things that can be used to pinpoint our identities. The less we give away, the safer we are.”

“But what if we really need to say something to each other?” Jin asked. She snapped her fingers, as if suddenly realizing something. “Oh—if we talk, how should we sound like? We obviously can’t use our real voices because it might give us away.”

“So, we should come up with fake ones,” Beom-pal concluded.

“Yes. How does this sound?” Jin cleared her throat and deepened her voice so that the words came out in a harsh, throaty rasp. “ _Hello_ …”

“Terrible,” Zuko blandly said. Honestly, these amateurs! He was starting to severely regret working with them. Perhaps he should have just asked for the information and then, insisted that they stay out of it.

“Okay, my turn. How about this? _Hello, hello…”_ Beom-pal’s attempt at a fake voice was even more disastrous than Jin’s. He tried to heighten the pitch of his sonorous voice but it ended up coming out as a pitiful squeal. Everyone burst into muffled laughter and even Zuko couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from twitching.

“It didn’t sound that bad,” Jin kindly said.

“No. It was bad,” Smellerbee snickered.

“Shit, I’m so _terrible_ at this.” Beom-pal said, distressed. He placed his hands on his face and moaned. “Oh no, should we have practiced this back at my house? I’m awful at improvising. Hey Lee, can you show us your Blue Ogre voice so I could get ideas?”

“This is not the Blue Ogre. This is the Blue Spirit,” Zuko indignantly said. At the long moment of confused silence, his annoyance only intensified. Bother them all! How could they not recognize the Blue Spirit? There was truly no accounting for taste with these people!

“The Blue Spirit? The one who cursed the Dragon Emperor to become mortal? He’s a very important figure in all the traditional plays and—you know what, never mind,” Zuko said, suddenly remembering that the Blue Spirt was from a Fire Nation play. Curses! He had almost slipped up right there. Well, never mind. He highly doubted that they would care anyway, even if they did know about _Love Amongst the Dragons_. He could tell that they weren’t the sort to care for the classics.

“And, I don’t have a Blue Spirit voice because as I’ve said, _we aren’t even supposed to talk in the first place.”_

At the harsh tone of Zuko’s voice, Beom-pal winced and rapidly nodded his head, “Right, right. No codenames, no fake voices.”

Zuko sighed, immediately feeling bad. Perhaps, he should be more patient. Smellerbee and Longshot seemed like they were used to this kind of thing but it was quite clear that Jin and Beom-pal had never done anything like this before and were nervous about the whole ordeal.

“Look, let’s just get this over with. Does everyone remember the plan?” Zuko said, taking on a kinder tone.

Everyone nodded.

“I’ll go set the bombs while Longshot makes his way over to Lon Lon Yang Building,” Smellerbee said.

Lon Lon Yang Building was another one of the entrances to the underground system and was their chosen exit point. Once Zuko gave them Jet’s cell number and Beom-pal managed to accurately pinpoint where its exact location was, they collectively decided that it would be better to exit the underground through another building. Aside from the fact that creating two incidents in one area would be suspicious, it also made better sense to exit through Lon Lon Yang given that it was the less circuitous way out of the underground from Jet’s cell.

“I’ll only set the timepiece once the distraction goes off,” Jin said, taking the timepiece out from her pocket.

Longshot made a long, choppy gesture with his hands. Smellerbee dutifully interpreted, “Longshot promises to set the distraction off _after exactly an hour_ in Lon Lon Yang.”

“We’ll be sure to be out with Jet by then,” Zuko confirmed.

Beom-pal audibly gulped.

“What if we’re not there in an hour?” he quietly said.

Zuko looked at the other boy in understanding.

_An hour._

They only had a window of _an hour._

A tiny seed of doubt pricked at the corner of his mind, one that sinuously spoke of failure. A million things could go wrong within one hour. Beom-pal might take a wrong turn and lead them to a completely different direction or the patrol schedule might have inexplicably changed and they would encounter Dai Li agents or Jet might have been transferred to another prisonhold without their knowledge.

 _This is just a simple extraction mission_ , he told himself. The timeframe was a little tight, it was true, but he _had_ managed to break the Avatar out of Pohuai Stronghold. And he had been alone then. At least this time, he had back-up.

“We’ll make the hour,” Jin determinedly said, reaching over to put a hand over Beom-pal’s. She glanced at Zuko and even though her mask hid the expression on her face, he got the distinct impression that she didn’t feel as certain as she sounded and was looking to him for re-assurance. “Right, Lee?”

“Right,” Zuko replied in a firm voice. Noticing that Beom-pal still seemed queasy, he adopted the fatherly, authoritative tone he had often heard Uncle Iroh use on his men. “We’ve all run through the plan about a thousand times by now. We know what to do. Nothing bad will happen. _I promise_.”

Beom-pal said nothing although he did, at least, visibly relax.

“Remember everyone,” Zuko continued. “It’s in and out, no mess, so nobody knows we’ve been here. And then, we all forget about this in the morning.”

“Okay,” Smellerbee said.

“Let’s do this, guys! Jiā yóu!” Jin said, using the Earth Kingdom phrase “add oil” which was an expression one often used for encouragement. She leaned forward and wrapped Smellerbee and Longshot into a tight hug. Beom-pal followed suit and crashed into them, gathering and scooping everyone up with his sturdy arms.

They stayed like that for a few seconds. Just as he was about to tell them to stop so they could get on with it, he suddenly realized that they had all turned to look at him.

Zuko took a step back, discomfited by the sight of four, vaguely demonic-looking masks peering at him.

“ _No_ ,” he said, immediately comprehending what they wanted him to do.

“Oh, come on Lee, stop being such a killjoy,” Jin spoke up.

“I am not hugging any of you,” Zuko said.

“This is a team effort. You’re part of the team so you need to join in.”

“What does a group hug have anything to do with team effort?”

“It’s obviously to boost everyone’s morale and encourage all of us!”

“We do this in some of our training sessions in the Cadre Academy you know. And in the Club,” Beom-pal added.

“It really does help,” Jin supplied.

“No way.”

“Have it your way then,” Jin said. Then, in a sing-song voice, she added, “But you’re missing out.”

“I don’t—‘’

“Oh, for Spirit’s sake, just get over here and hug us!” Smellerbee impatiently said.

“Fine,” Zuko grumped. He stomped over towards them and made half-hearted attempts at a hug by loosely putting his arms around their shoulders and patting them. Jin, however, was not to be deterred. With a strength he did not expect her to possess, she forcefully shoved him forward so that he was squished in between her and Beom-pal. As everyone pulled Zuko closer with Jin saying “Let’s go team!”, he found himself making a small smile from beneath his mask.

He had to admit that this wasn’t so bad.

In fact, it was kind of nice.

* * *

As they silently waited for Smellerbee to set the bombs off, Jin tried to stop her stomach from leaping past her throat.

It wasn’t her first time to feel this way. She had the exact same feeling when she stood outside the door of the reliquary, just moments before she was about to undergo her initiation rites and be formally inducted into the Order. And again, when she was assigned her first mission and her grandfather told her to go talk and ask for forged documents from Mimaki Qiao, the dreaded “Mountain Master” of Si Hai Bang or the Four Seas Triad. And again, during the minutes before she was set to perform her first recital for The Daughters of Suzhou. And always, _always_ , whenever she was about take either an examination in mathematics or philosophy.

But somehow, this time, it felt different. Aside from the fact that her insides felt as though they were seconds away from exploding, a horrible foreboding feeling swept through her. How Lee, Smellerbee and Longshot managed to look as though this was just another ordinary day for them was completely beyond her!

A loud series of bangs suddenly exploded from the distance, momentarily pulling her away from her anxious thoughts.

Jin instinctively gripped the back of Lee’s shirt and ducked behind him while Beom-pal gave a small whimper of terror. Raised voices accompanied by harried footsteps filtered through from the rooms of the ground floor. Motioning for Jin and Beom-pal to be quiet, Lee gestured at them to follow him and together, they softly crept away from the landing where they had been waiting and down the flight of stairs until they found a spot with a vantage point to the building’s front door. Four Dai Li agents hurtled past it, leaving the door slightly ajar in their wake. They waited for a few more seconds to see if any other Dai Li agents would follow and when none did, the three of them leapt past the last few steps and rushed into the room where the Dai Li kept office.

To Jin’s immense relief, it was empty. With business-like ease, Lee shoved her so she was facing the window and instructed her to keep watch before turning to Beom-pal and barking, “Find the entrance!” In the meantime, he moved near the door, unsheathed his swords and held his arms up into a defensive stance.

Beom-pal mutely nodded and immediately dropped to a crouch, his hands pressed against the hard-packed dirt floor. He stayed in that position for a few seconds before standing up and moving towards an empty space in the corner. With two powerful strokes of his arms, the floor opened to a steep incline that led to a very deep, dark cavern.

“Quickly!” Beom-pal whispered.

The two of them didn’t need much prompting. Jin swiftly sprang past Beom-pal and slid down the incline to the very bottom, wobbling a little as she landed. Lee followed after her, landing on the ground with a more graceful flourish. Using his rock gloves, Beom-pal hung on to the incline for a moment and raised a hand to earthbend the entrance closed.

Immediately, the darkness pressed in from all around them. The Underground was black and damp, illuminated only by faint, green lamps. Jin would have thought that being underground wouldn’t bother her so much because the reliquary and other Order meeting rooms were also below ground. But there was a distinctly sinister feeling about the place. Lee must have felt it too because for the first time since they began this whole ordeal, he seemed deeply unsettled.

The two of them waited at the bottom as Beom-pal slid the rest of the way down. He landed next to the two of them with a heavy thud and after a few moments of fussing about, he immediately started to lead them past a series of spacious corridors. Finally, after what seemed like several agonizingly long hours, Beom-pal stopped at a hallway lined with metal doors.

“We’re in Bloc 19. Cell 1967 should be in here somewhere,” Beom-pal said.

“The cells are obviously arranged chronologically,” Lee observed, catching sight of the nearest door numbers which read “1901,” “1902,” and so on and so forth. “1967 is going to be at the back.”

The three of them sprinted across the hallway and only slowed down once they reached the middle, around the part where the doors started to read as “1950.” As they moved at a more sedate pace, it became increasingly clear to Jin that the cells were not as empty as she thought. She knew of course, that logically, those other metal doors they had gone by had people inside them—Jet wouldn’t have been the only one the Dai Li arrested yesterday. Still, it was easy to disregard this fact when one was hurrying along.

Now that they were moving more slowly, it was becoming difficult to ignore all the other prisoners. Several terrified, hollow-looking faces peered at them from behind the tiny metal slots of the doors. One of them even began to hoarsely call out to them, pleading and begging for them to come closer so that he could at least touch them and know that they were real. Jin looked in the direction of the voice, where a gnarled man with red-rimmed eyes stared piteously back at her. Once he saw the malicious sneer of her cat mask, he immediately pressed his head against the metal slot and started to babble in one of the Earth Kingdom dialects.

Jin stopped walking completely. She noticed that he spoke in the drawn-out, slurring manner that was distinctive of the Southwestern region.

“What is it?” Beom-pal asked.

“The old man…he’s mistaking us for Spirits,” Lee answered for her. Jin looked at him, surprised that he understood. Not many in the Earth Kingdom bothered to learn dialects other than their own and the Main Earth Tongue. Jin knew several, but that was mostly owing to the fact that the Lower Ring was filled to the brim with refugees from all parts of the country, all of whom were fiercely regionalistic. Ever friendly, Jin had learned at an early age that the fastest way to make someone like you was to make the effort to learn their dialect.

“He’s praying for us to free him…or if we are not inclined to grant that kindness…to _kill_ him,” Jin added.

A strange, squeezing sensation started to flutter in her chest. With every wretched look and pleading cry, the sensation only intensified. Did her father look like this when he was imprisoned?

 _She couldn’t just leave these people here_ , she decided. It was wrong to do so, especially since she was in a position to help. But how would this affect their mission? They were working on a tight timeframe and rescuing other people might throw their entire plan out of order. Would it be right for her to jeopardize everyone else’s life by demanding that they also free the other prisoners from their cells?

“We still have forty-five minutes left,” she finally settled on saying. She titled her chin up in defiance and squared her shoulders, rearing herself up for a fight. Obviously, she couldn’t force the others to deviate from the plan. That would be unfair. In any case, if they didn’t want to rescue the others, she was prepared to go alone—there was no putting her off anything once she had made her mind up. 

To her surprise, even Beom-pal seemed to be of the same mind. He said, “And there seems to be only six people around Jet’s cell.”

“Then, that’s enough time to free these other people,” Lee firmly said. An unspoken agreement seemed to settle between the three of them. “If we work fast, we should be able to do it. Do you two know how to pick locks?”

“I do,” Jin said. Picking locks was just one of the many things one inevitably picked up from having Seiji as an uncle.

“Um…I don’t. But since they won’t start patrolling in an hour anyway, I could just…er…smash the locks with a rock?” Beom-pal offered.

“Just try to be quiet about it,” Lee ordered. “Beom-pal you handle those cells over there by the front. I’ll handle the middle. Jin, you handle the end. Got it?”

The two of them nodded and with a wave of his hand, Lee dismissed them to their tasks. Jin moved to the old man’s cell, took out one of her hairpins and prodded it against the keyhole. In the distance, she could hear the muted, clanging noises of Beom-pal slamming rocks against a metal door.

Finally, the lock clicked open. The old man tumbled forward and gave her an overjoyed cry of thanks. Jin pressed a finger against her mask, indicating for him to be quiet before moving on to the next cell on the right across from where she was. This time, the person inside wasn’t by the door but was sitting on a chair, his eyes glazed over with disconcerting dead-eyed expression.

 _Probably had just undergone mindbending_ , she thought.

Gently, she shook his arm and started to lead him outside.

“What…who are you?” the man mumbled. “What are you doing?”

Jin whispered back, “Never mind who I am, sir. We have to go outside and quickly—oh Spirits, you’re Chancellor Yang Ming!”

They had moved out now, into the corridor where the glow of the lamps allowed her a closer look of who she was holding.

“Why…yes…yes that’s my name,” Chancellor Yang Ming slowly said.

Despite her best efforts to restrain herself, Jin let out a string of ecstatic noises. She babbled, “I’m such a fan—you have no idea—I have the golden edition of the entire collection of _all_ your plays—"

“How sweet of you,” Chancellor Yang Ming said, still sounding completely out of it.

“Your play, _Romance of the Western Chamber_ is my favorite—I’ve seen it five times and Holy Shu, that lament in Act 1 is poetry— _pure poetry—‘’_ Jin was babbling now, quite unable to stop herself. She had a more careful speech planned, back when she still thought Chancellor Yang Ming would show up to Itani’s recital. But now that he was here before her, all coherent speech flew away from her mind.

“My favorite is the poem-reading scene between Zhang Junrui and Cui Yingying—it’s so _romantic_ —I’ve memorized Zhang Junrui’s poem _by heart_ —‘’

“What are you doing!?” Lee suddenly said. Jin turned to the side and found that he had finished getting all the people in his assigned area—a sallow-faced woman and a hale-looking man.

“Look L—I mean Blue Spirit! It’s Chancellor Yang Ming! He’s—‘’

“Yes, yes! But don’t forget that we’re still missing three other people, including Jet,” Lee sternly reminded her.

“Oh, right of course,” Jin said, immediately feeling foolish. Sheepishly, she ducked her head and gestured at Cell 1967. “I’ll er…work on Jet’s and you can check to see how Beom-pal is doing.”

Lee curtly nodded his head. Feeling absolutely chastened, Jin moved to Jet’s cell and began to work on the lock. Once she managed to get the door opened, she quietly stepped inside where she found Jet lying on his bed.

Of course, upon seeing her, Jet’s first instinct was to attack. _Typical_.

“Who are you!? What do you want!?” Jet yelled, careening towards her with his arms poised to punch. Jin moved fast and immediately sidestepped him, narrowly avoiding his clenched fists. For a few horrible seconds, the two of them were locked in a sort of dance, with Jet attempting to hit Jin and Jin dodging all of his best attempts at doing so. Suddenly remembering that she had her rope dart on her, Jin untangled the rope and swung to evade Jet’s tackle. She whirled so that she was right behind him and expertly spun the rope so that it wrapped around Jet’s hands in a secure hold.

Jet struggled mightily against her grasp. “Let me go! I said let me go you—‘’

“Jet—stop!‘’ Jin gasped, a little out of breath from their fight. “Jet! It’s me, you idiot!”

Jet relaxed, immediately recognizing Jin’s voice. He turned and stared at her with open amazement, as if the idea that she was crazy enough to break into the Dai Li’s prisonholds was beyond comprehension.

She unwound the rope from around his hands and stepped back as Jet launched himself towards her. He squeezed her tight, as if it was his first time to have physical contact with anyone in years.

“Jin! Is it really you?”

“Yes! Thank the Spirits you’re okay,” Jin said, relieved. She hugged him in return and placed a hand to cradle the back of his head.

“What are you doing here!? And what’s with the creepy mask?”

“We’ve come to rescue you!”

“ _We_? You mean Smellerbee and Longshot?”

“Yes.” She hesitated, wondering if she should tell him about Lee. “And some…friends.”

“Friends?”

“I’ve brought back up.”

“Who?”

Jin hemmed and hawed, not really wanting to admit that she had asked Lee for help. Just as she was about to say something, Lee suddenly came striding in.

“What’s taking so long?” he irritably demanded. “Is he there or what?”

Unfortunately, Jet also recognized Lee’s voice.

“ _You_!” Jet furiously said. He turned to face Jin, his eyes blazing with anger.

“I can’t believe you! _Lee_ is your back-up?” he disgustedly said. “ _I knew it._ I always knew you two were in cahoots with each other. Why else would you have asked _him_ of all people?””

“Funny how you can still afford to be picky despite your predicament,” Lee drily piped up.

Jet glowered at him and said, “I wasn’t talking to you, you maggoty piece of—‘’

“Oh, honestly!” Jin huffed. She grabbed Jet’s swords, which Lee had been carrying on his back and shoved them into Jet’s hands. “Argue later. We’re on a time crunch!”

For a moment, Jet’s anger dissipated. He stared at his swords wonderingly. “You’ve brought my swords?”

“Smellerbee managed to nick them and keep them safe for you after the Dai Li arrested you. Lee thought of bringing them along so you could defend yourself once we leave. He also brought you your own mask to hide your identity.”

“Here!” Lee said, grabbing the monkey mask strapped to his hip and flinging it at Jet. The mask bounced against Jet’s forehead with a thunk.

“Ow!” Jet yelped. He bent down to pick the mask up, hurling invectives as he did so. Once he got a more proper look at it, his expression soured even further.

“Figures you would give me the ugliest one,” he sneered. Indeed, it seemed that Lee did not make any true effort to pick a properly terrifying mask for Jet. The grinning monkey looked like one of those three-copper masks that Jin would have picked out for Shun to wear in one of his friend’s kiddie parties.

Still, it was undeniably adorable.

“I think it’s cute,” she said.

“ _Cute_? It looks like something a toddler would wear!”

“Then, it suits you perfectly,” Lee shot back.

“See!? _See!?_ Did you hear that, Jin?” Jet whined in a voice not unlike the one Shun would use whenever he tried to tattle to her about one of his friends. “I knew it! He chose this mask specifically to make me look like an ass.”

“I don’t need to do anything to make you look like an ass. You’re doing a fine job of that all by yourself—''

“ _Boys_!” Jin exasperatedly said. “Didn’t I say to argue later? Jet, just put the mask on.”

“But—‘’

 _“Put the mask on,”_ she said, using her sternest big-sister voice.

“Fine,” Jet grumbled, quailing under the tone of Jin’s voice. “But if you’re going to rescue me, might as well get all the others in my bloc.”

“We’re already one step ahead of you,” Lee smugly said. The three of them stepped outside where they found Beom-pal waiting with six other terrified-looking people.

“Who’s that?” Jet asked, gesturing at Beom-pal.

“Back-up,” Jin simply said. Mindful of Lee’s warning about not giving their identities away, she added, “I’ll properly introduce the two of you once we’re out of here.”

“Hey,” Beom-pal said.

“Hey.” Jet raised a hand in reply before looking around to survey the other people. He stilled.

“There’s one missing,” he said.

“What?”

“There’s another person in this bloc that you guys missed.”

“Ah yes…that’s just what I was telling Mr. Rooster over here,” Chancellor Yang Ming hazily said. His eyes were still blank and befuddled although his voice wasn’t as sluggish now. “There’s a boy….the son of one of the Han Sisters…”

He petered off into incoherent babbling. 

“ _Boy_?” Jin said.

“Yes,” Jet nodded. “He was really tiny. Probably around your brother’s age.”

“The Dai Li arrested a _five-year-old?”_ Jin disbelievingly said.

“That’s just what I was saying!” Beom-pal said. “I mean I know we’re terrible but we’re not _that_ terrible.”

“No, the old geezer is right,” Jet insisted. “There was a boy. He was arrested before me. I always see him being dragged over there.”

He gestured at the corner of the far end of the corridor. Lee and Jin automatically looked at each other in consultation.

“How many minutes left?” Lee asked.

Jin checked her timepiece. “Thirty.”

“I suppose there’s enough time to check it out,” Lee uncertainly said.

Jet, who was in no mood to go prodding about in another cell after being imprisoned, and Beom-pal, who didn’t like to be separated from the group, offered to keep guard while Lee and Jin went to check it out. They walked until the end of the hallway and turned around another dim corridor where across a large, cold lobby, a very steep tunnel-like passageway slanted downwards. Jin and Lee gazed down and tried to see what was at the end of it.

The passageway was fairly spacious and led to a small, drafty cavern that was so dark that at first, Jin saw nothing but black. Carefully, she pried a candle from one of the lamps on the wall and hung it over their heads.

The candle cast a weak glow in the darkness. It was just enough for her to see that at the very bottom, lay what looked like to be a large metal box with only a tiny rectangular hole at the top.

“Let’s check it out?” Jin asked.

Lee was maddeningly silent.

“Lee?”

“Yes,” Lee replied. “Let’s check it out.”

Jin stiffened at the tone of his voice. For the first time since the night began, Lee sounded fearful.

* * *

The first thing Zuko felt was the darkness crowding in from all around them. It was so black that the candle seemed nothing more like a tiny pinprick in the dark. The two of them went down very slowly. Unlike the incline that led to the Underground, this passageway was crude, as if it had just been dug up hours ago. Zuko didn’t want to risk tumbling down to the very bottom. A strong draft blew downwards, which gave Zuko the impression that the room seemed to function as a mini-wind tunnel. There also seemed to be an unbelievable amount of moisture in the air—everything felt so cold and damp that Zuko found himself shivering. It was so dark and so cold that Zuko was suddenly struck with the horrible, inescapable thought that he would never see the sun again.

 _To be trapped here forever and be so far away from Agni…that was a fate worse than death_ , he thought.

Once they reached the bottom, his feet splashed on something and he looked down and saw that he was ankle-deep in what looked like mud. With a start, he realized that the entire metal box was surrounded and partially submerged by watery sand. He placed a hand on the earthen walls to steady himself and found that it was also wet and sodden.

 _Of course, it would be_ , Zuko realized. The wind and sandy surface would make the water evaporate rapidly, constantly cooling the air and moistening the surrounding walls.

Vaguely, he was reminded of the ancient clay pot in pot coolers the Fire Nation would use before the more modern metal coolers were invented.

“I think…the box can only be opened from the top,” Jin whispered. “Give me a boost.”

Zuko nodded his head, feeling immensely grateful when Jin handed him the candle. As he held on to it, he could feel the fire within the lamp throb faintly, warming and sustaining him. He set it down on one of the steps and helped Jin climb up to the top. Then, with practiced ease, he clambered up after her, candle in hand. As he climbed, he was surprised to find that the box was made out of a kind of cheap metal which wasn’t very sturdy.

 _Probably aluminum_ , he thought.

When he reached the top, he found Jin already trying to pick the lock.

“It’s not budging,” she said.

“Step back,” Zuko ordered. He unsheathed his swords and brought them down on the lock which immediately cracked opened like an egg. Jin pushed it away and pried the door open, wincing as a chilly burst of air suddenly slammed against their faces. Zuko shuddered. If he thought that the air outside the box was cold, the inside was even worse.

At first, they couldn’t see anything. Jin grabbed the lamp from Zuko’s hand and held it over the opening.

She gave a soft, horrified gasp.

Peering up at them was the sad, frightened eyes of a small boy who looked no older than Shun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jin and Beom-pal are nerds who find this whole endeavor equal parts exciting and equal parts terrifying.
> 
> Bakenekos and nekomatas are demonic cats so Jin's mask would look like a scarier and more elaborate version of [this ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nekomata) and [this ](https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/beware-cat-tales-wicked-japanese-bakeneko-and-nekomata-part-1-004471)
> 
> I imagine Beom-pal's mask to be like, a rooster version of a plague mask. I'm sure you are all familiar with Noh masks.
> 
> Smellerbee's mask looks like [this ](http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Opera/type-13-broken-flower.html) but in black and yellow.
> 
> I know the meme has an entirely different context but I imagine the whole gang + Jet with his silly, baby mask looking like [this ](https://imgur.com/gallery/k5UdZrs) Jet can be such a big dummy but he's spot on when he said that Zuko purposely picked the mask so he would look the least intimidating among everyone.
> 
> On that note, I spent almost three days trying to come up with a name for their group but have so far, ended up with nothing. Do any of you have suggestions for what our little group of vigilantes/troublemakers should be called?


	12. No Mess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which everyone gets into a big mess.

Beom-pal looked at Jet and then away and then back again.

There were so many things that he wanted to ask the other boy but he wasn’t quite sure how to go about it without sounding rude. From what he had gathered, this Jet was a particularly violent person so there was no telling how he would react to what would be a simple question. Still, it seemed a shame to let this opportunity go to waste—the two of them were standing guard at the lip of the corridor, away from the prying ears of the other prisoners. If he wanted to satisfy his curiosity, there was no better time than this moment.

Beom-pal turned to Jet, opened his mouth and then quickly closed it upon seeing the other boy’s severe stance.

He looked away and twiddled his thumbs.

Jet crossed his arms and gave a long-suffering sigh.

“Okay. Out with it.”

“W-What?” Beom-pal sputtered.

The adorable smile of Jet’s monkey mask gazed at him. It was jarring given how impatient he sounded.

“Just go on and say what you want to tell me.”

Oh no! He had caught on.

Beom-pal hastily attempted to do damage control. “I wasn’t trying to tell you anything—‘’

“You’ve been looking at me for the past few minutes,” Jet drawled. “You obviously want to say something to me. So, come on. Out with it. Just tell me now and get it over with—‘’

“Is it true that you’re a violent stalker who randomly attacks people?” Beom-pal found himself blurting out.

“ _What_?” Jet indignantly said. “Where did you get that from?”

“Well…er…everyone,” Beom-pal fumbled, quickly realizing that the question wasn’t phrased in the most tactful of ways. “Longshot, Smellerbee, Lee—‘’

“Of course, Lee would say that!” Jet bristled. “It’s just like him to malign me and spread ridiculous falsehoods about my character—‘’

“Um, Jin said it as well—‘’

“She really said that?” Jet said, sounding genuinely stung. Then, his shoulders tensed and his voice steadily rose with righteous anger. “Why am I not surprised? She _always_ sides with Lee. I bet once she heard about our fight, she somehow thought that it was _my_ fault again—‘’

“So, you _didn’t_ start the fight?”

“No, I did. But I had a very good reason to. Which I’m sure Jin conveniently decided to leave out. Those two are always ganging up against me…”

He continued to drone on and on about Lee and Jin colluding with each other but Beom-pal wasn’t listening anymore. It was faint but he perceived it almost immediately. There was a shift in the ground, a sudden movement of weight that suggested footsteps.

“Um—‘’

“What?!”

“I think there are people coming,” Beom-pal whispered. Cold sweat broke across his brow. He immediately glanced back, past the group of prisoners huddled in the corner all the way to the very end of the corridor, straining for any sign of Lee and Jin.

There was no trace of them.

“How long have we been in here?” Jet said, suddenly sounding serious. He unsheathed his swords and raised them in a defensive stance.

“I don’t know. Jin’s the one with the timepiece,” Beom-pal frantically said. Although now that he thought about it, Lee and Jin had been gone for an awfully long time. What was taking them so long?

“Round everyone up and tell them we’re about to move,” Jet authoritatively said. “Tell everyone who can fight to be ready. We’ll need all the help we can get.”

“Okay,” Beom-pal squeaked.

“We’ll go get Lee and Jin. You go to the front of the group and I’ll keep guard from the back—‘’

There was a crunch against the gravel.

Jet and Beom-pal whipped their heads forward where from the looks of their uniforms, they found three surprised-looking Dai Li trainees gawking at them.

Before they could react, rock gloves careened towards them. Beom-pal clumsily moved out of the way while Jet sprang forward, swords whirling and slashing in graceful arcs. There was a moment or so of horrid drubbing and struggling, as Jet attempted to take on the Dai Li agents by himself. Beom-pal hastened to help, although he hastened somewhat hesitantly because while he had gone through all fifty-five courses of combat training in the Cadre Academy, he had never actually been in a real fight before.

He slowly edged closer and then, trying to recall everything he had learned from his unit commander, he slammed a foot against the ground and bent a shifting earth wall at the commotion. Everyone broke apart. Jet narrowly managed to dodge the wall while the three Dai Li trainees sailed away in opposite directions. One of them banged his head against the wall and collapsed in a sprawl. The other gracefully managed to steady himself by flipping over and gripping the ground before sliding towards Beom-pal at full-speed.

Beom-pal went through the motion of his _katas_ and after a few awkward scrapes, he found that he was actually not half-bad at this. Beside him, the third Dai Li trainee attempted to hit Jet with several rock spikes but Jet expertly dodged them. He came up to the Dai Li trainee, elbowed him on the chest and after a moment of grunting deadlock, Jet slammed the butt of his swords against the agent’s forehead. Once the man was on the ground, Jet hurried towards Beom-pal who was attempting to dodge all of the agent’s blows. Jet swung his swords and nicked the agent’s cheek. The man turned a fraction of an inch back, which was just enough time for Beom-pal to knock him out with a rock-column uppercut.

Panting, the two of them looked at each other, pleased with their work.

“Good job,” Jet sincerely said.

Beom-pal puffed his chest out in pride.

Before he could return the favor and express amazement at Jet’s swordskills (the man took on three _earthbending_ Dai Li trainees with no effort!), there was a grunt and the sound of harried footsteps.

Oh, shit! They had completely forgotten that there were _three_ of them.

The other Dai Li trainee—the one who had hit his head against the wall and collapsed—had gotten back up and was hurtling away from them.

“Oh no,” Beom-pal said, immediately realizing where the man was going. “He’s going to sound the alarm bell.”

Jet held his swords up. “I’ll go after him. Get Lee and Jin and tell them to stop fucking around. We have company.”

* * *

There were many different versions of hell that people believed in across the Earth Kingdom. The general belief was the same—if one led an exemplary life, they could immediately enter the blissful “Western Pure Land” of the Jade Emperor to live in eternal peace and happiness. But the majority had to go through all the levels of Diyu or the “earth prison,” a subterranean maze located in the Spirit World, filled with various levels and chambers, to which souls are taken after death to atone for the sins they committed when they were alive.

The exact number of levels in Diyu and their associated spirits differed, depending on one’s spiritual sect and region. Some believed in as little as three to four “courts” while others believed that there were as many as 12,800 hells located under the earth; others spoke of the “Ten Courts of Hell,” each of which was ruled by a magistrate (collectively known as the Ten Yama Kings) with the Tenth Magistrate (King Zhuanlun) being the one to decide what one reincarnated as; others believed in “Eighteen Levels of Hell” which each level representing a different aspect of atonement and punishment.

Fire Nation belief of the afterlife was nowhere near as complicated or as ridiculous. Each person had a spirit which was eternal. Death was only the loss of the body—when a person died, they would exist as Spirits who were free to go to wherever they pleased. The Spirits could choose to reincarnate or go to the various “Takaikan” or “Otherworlds” that existed in the Spirit Realm such as the Tokoyo or “World Beyond the Sea,” a perfect utopia that supposedly brooked no suffering, Yomi-no-kuni, the gloomy and shadowy realm populated by polluted spirits or “the Heavens,” where Agni and the other great fire spirits reside. 

However, most of the dead preferred to stay in the Present World, often working towards the prosperity of their descendants and the land. As such, religious practice in the Fire Nation tended to be pre-occupied with _this_ world instead of the afterlife.

The goal was to avoid “kegare” or “pollution” and aspire for “hare” or “purity” to ensure that one could peacefully cohabit with the spirits. To invite pollution through dishonorable deeds and impure thoughts was to awaken the ara-mitama or the violent side of a spirit and bring disaster upon one’s self.

If the people of the Fire Nation did believe in hell, it would have been this—a dark, cold place, completely devoid of warmth and perpetually estranged from Agni’s light. Zuko tried to imagine being trapped in here, shivering against the cool, damp wind and seeing nothing but black upon black. The thought alone made him despair. This place was twenty times worse than any of the various hells the Earth People believed in. He could not believe that the Dai Li could subject anyone, let alone _a child_ , to this place!

It was clear to Zuko that the government of the Earth People was corrupt, oppressive and backwards. This country needed the firm, guiding hand of his father to keep them from acting against their base instincts.

A spike of anger burst through him but he immediately tried to quell it. It wouldn’t do to lose his temper, not when the child looked terrified enough as it is. The boy was looking from him to Jin in terror, his eyes wide and unblinking. Jin had tried several times to get him to talk—she first spoke in the Common Tongue, soothingly asking for his name and when he merely blinked at her, she switched to the main Earth Tongue and then rotated through about five different dialects. But it was to no avail. The boy simply stood there in complete silence as she and Zuko worked on the chains.

When Jin finally managed to pry last chain loose, Zuko impatiently said, “Give him to me.”

Jin reached for the boy but he immediately shrank back, petrified.

“Hey, it’s okay. You’re okay now. We won’t hurt you,” Jin gently said, stepping hesitantly towards the child, as if approaching a spooked animal. 

The boy furiously shook his head and scampered away.

“Now, now. There’s no need to run away. We’re here to help you.”

The boy moved away from her again but luckily, Jin seemed to have experience with handling slippery children. With some effort, she scooped up the boy in her arms and carefully handed the wriggling, restless child to Zuko. The boy’s head thrashed from side to side in silent protest but Zuko’s grip was firm.

“I’ll go on ahead. Stay here and double-check if we’ve missed anything,” Zuko said, quickly coming up with a way to distract Jin.

“But what would I even need to double-check—‘’

“Please. Just do it,” Zuko pleaded.

Jin looked at him for a moment.

“Okay,” she finally replied.

Grateful that she wasn’t pressing the issue, Zuko clambered out of the metal box, careful to keep a steady one-armed grip on the boy. Once they were outside, Zuko ripped his mask off, not even caring if the boy saw his identity and drew his face close to the child’s. He made a deep inhale, pooling as much of his _chi_ into his lungs, just as Uncle had taught him. And then, he exhaled.

A great burst of hot air whizzed from his mouth and on to the child’s face. The child relaxed for the first time, his eyes drooping closed as he basked in the warmth of Zuko’s Breath of Fire. He made five other great puffs, hurrying to get as many as he could out before Jin returned. With each exhale, the child became more at ease, his body slackening so languidly that for a moment, Zuko was terrified that the boy had fainted.

Noting that the child’s little fingers were ice-cold, he knelt down, steadied the boy so that he was standing before Zuko and took off his gloves. Then, he carefully placed the child’s hands in his own, exhaling great puffs of warm air onto the boy’s palms and focused all of his energy into transferring as much of his body heat into the child’s trembling limbs. The child’s inner _chi_ throbbed faintly at first, greatly weakened and sapping as much of the borrowed heat as it could. But the moment Zuko managed to stabilize it, the boy’s inner _chi_ began to thrum mightily, pulsating with the power and heat that could only come from a—

No, that was impossible.

How could such a child like him even end up here in Ba Sing Se, a city untouched by the Fire Nation?

Still, it would certainly explain the…interesting choice of prison.

“Lee?” Jin called.

“Yes?”

“There’s nothing down here. I’ll go up now.”

“Okay,” Zuko said, hastily putting his mask back on.

He pulled the child up against his hip and crouched down, using his free arm to help Jin climb out of the metal box. Once she was right next to him, she immediately shrugged off her outer tunic and gently wrapped it around the child’s body, swaddling and tucking him into the cloth as if he were a baby. Zuko looked at her the whole time, nervous that she would realize that the boy had inexplicably regained warmth. But thankfully, Jin noticed nothing.

“There. That should help you warm up faster,” she said, smoothing down the child’s hair with a fond pat of her hand. With her outer tunic gone, her shoulders was exposed, her black arm guards only reaching up a few inches above her elbow. It suddenly, inexplicably made him aware of how graceful her neck was. Which was a really silly thing to think about given their situation.

Zuko cleared his throat in embarrassment and focused on the child. The boy just stared at Jin although Zuko noted that he did seem to lean into her touch a bit more than before. Jin continued to soothingly say, “Don’t worry. We’re going to get you out of here and find your mom and dad, okay? Just hang in there and we’ll—‘’

“Jin? Lee?” a voice shakily whispered from above.

Zuko turned to find the tip of Beom-pal’s rooster mask peering at them from the opening of the passageway.

“We’re here!” Jin called out.

“What is it?” Zuko demanded.

“Um…do you remember when you said that this whole thing should be in and out, no mess?” Beom-pal nervously said.

Zuko narrowed his eyes. He didn’t like where this was going. “Yes.”

“Well…um…the thing is…we’re in a bit of a mess.”

* * *

Longshot frowned.

He pressed himself against the wall of the building opposite Lon Lon Yang, patiently waiting for the rest of the group to come bursting through the door or the windowsill. They should have come out by now. It wouldn’t be long before the Dai Li agents who had gone away to examine the source of the putrid smell returned to the building.

He checked the timepiece Jin had given him, wondering if he had somehow set the stink bombs too early.

No, the time they had agreed on was right.

He thickly swallowed.

Something was wrong.

* * *

“We need to get out of here,” Zuko said, as soon as Beom-pal finished apprising them of the situation.

“I can help with that! Hold on to the wall!” Beom-pal called out.

“Huh?” Zuko said.

“Ugh, I hate it when he does this,” Jin muttered. She placed both of her hands on the earthen wall and tilted her head, gesturing for Zuko to do the same. “You’re going to want to keep a tight grip on him.”

Zuko nodded, reluctantly placing one hand on the wall while pulling the boy closer to his chest. He jumped, startled when his hand and feet were suddenly encased in hard-packed dirt.

“Beom-pal!”

“What?”

“When you give us a boost, make sure not to overdo it— _aaahhh_!” Jin screamed as the dirt around their hands and feet suddenly zipped forward, carrying them along and pelting them out of the passageway into the large lobby. The three of them collapsed in a heap on the floor, the child giving pained whimpers.

Well. At least Zuko now knew that the boy wasn’t mute and was capable of talking.

“Oops,” Beom-pal winced.

“Honestly! Could you be any less gentle?” Jin complained.

“Sorry, sometimes I forget my own—holy crap is that a _kid_?”

“Yes, yes, Jet was right. The Dai Li has branched out to child abuse,” Zuko said as he gestured at Beom-pal to start moving.

“We’ll tell you more once we’re out of here,” Jin added.

The three of them broke into a sprint along the hallway and didn’t stop until they turned along a corridor where a frightful commotion met them. There was a swarm of Dai Li agents and trainees, bending a flurry of rock spikes and rock gloves at Jet, who was making a valiant effort to dodge and deflect them. He was aided by the hale-looking man who was surprisingly proficient with his fists, the old man Jin had rescued and a younger-looking man who was trying to tackle one of the agents to the ground. The rest of the prisoners were huddled in one corner, eyeing the commotion with fear. As Jet turned to sidestep a rock glove, his eyes caught sight of them.

“Finally! Hey asshole! A little help here?” Jet yelled.

“Only if you say please!” Zuko shot back.

“Oh, screw you!”

Zuko thrust the boy into Jin’s arms and surged into the fray with Beom-pal at his heels. As he dodged and swung his swords, Zuko felt his muscles sing with a tension that felt _incredible_. The adrenaline rush of battle, the way his heart hammered against his chest as he narrowly avoided a hit, the glorious sound of his blades cutting through the air…. _he missed this_. Day after day of doing nothing but pouring tea and wiping tables had nearly made him forget how much he craved the thrill of a good fight.

“Look out!” Beom-pal yelped.

A particularly sharp rock spike hurtled towards him. Zuko managed to evade it but it continued to careen towards Jin. He rushed towards her, terrified it would hit her when a bright, green blur swished in the dark. The rock spike suddenly switched direction and crashed into the wall. It took him a moment before he realized that in the ensuing confusion, Jin had unraveled her rope dart and swung it to wrap around the rock spike and toss it to the other side.

As if sensing a new person to attack, one Dai Li agent rushed towards her. Zuko readied himself to defend her but Jin was quick. She pulled the rope back and did a quick movement with her feet to whip the rope in the Dai Li agent’s direction, keeping him at bay.

Zuko stared at her for a moment, before making the split-second decision to leave her to her own devices.

While it was clear to Zuko that Jin had received some sort of training, it was also abundantly obvious that she had never been in a real fight before. There was a certain stiffness in her movements, a lack of spontaneity and adaptability that was the mark of a true fighter—she still went through each movement as if she was going through a _kata_. Still, what she lacked in experience, she more than made up for with her courage. She wasn’t afraid to let the Dai Li agents get close to her and she would often boldly stride forward, her rope dart whipping and snapping wildly. She was also very quick on her feet—although she didn’t have much strength and force, she was very agile, moving with all the grace of her dancer’s training.

She also clearly wasn’t afraid to fight dirty. She seemed fond of using the rope dart’s flag as a distraction, spinning the rope in a manner that made it look as if the sharp dagger was going one way, when in fact, it was going the other way. One of these distractions worked handily. The flag made it look as though the dagger of the rope dart was sailing from the side. The Dai Li agent raised an arm to earthbend a wall for protection but before he knew it, Jin flicked her wrist, causing the dagger to swing upwards and puncture his shoulder.

The Dai Li agent gave a mighty howl. This, combined with the painful cut Jet gave another agent was enough to distract the rest of the Dai Li from the fighting.

“Come on! Let’s go!” Zuko said, using the momentary lull as an opportunity to escape.

Beom-pal immediately took the cue and started herding the others away. Jin, on the other hand, was crouched over the Dai Li agent, sputtering.

“Holy Shu…I’m so sorry—that wasn’t supposed to—here let me stop the bleeding—‘’

Jet and Zuko hauled her up by her arms and started dragging her along the hallway. Jin still didn’t stop blathering apologies.

“I’m _so_ sorry!”

“Stop apologizing to the Dai Li agent,” Zuko shortly said.

“But…but he’s bleeding—‘’

“Yes. That tends to happen when you try to stab someone with a dagger.”

“And what a fine stabbing it was!” Jet proudly said. “Good job! You’ve got some real potential. You nearly hit him in a vital spot.”

“ _What_!?”

Jet must have mistaken the horrified tone of her voice for disappointment because he encouragingly said, “Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll get him next time.”

“I don’t want to get him next time! I wasn’t trying to stab him! I was just trying to defend myself. It was an accident.”

“That defense won’t hold up in court,” Zuko pointed out.

“Do you think he’ll be okay?” Jin worriedly asked, as she looked back.

“Who cares?” Zuko snapped. Then, noticing that she had gone quiet, he sighed and said, “And you shouldn’t worry. Despite what _this_ idiot here said, you didn’t actually hit him near a vital spot—‘’

Jet made a noise of protest. Zuko rolled his eyes and ignored him.

“—He’ll be fine. He probably won’t even scar.”

He tried to sound as comforting as he could. He remembered the first time he _truly_ hurt an enemy with his firebending. It felt weird.

“Really?” Jin said.

“Really,” Zuko confirmed.

The three of them said nothing more as they rounded a corner and caught up with Beom-pal who expertly led them through the maze of corridors. From behind them, they could hear the pounding footsteps of the Dai Li agents chasing after them.

“We’re close to the Lon Lon Yang Exit,” Beom-pal panted.

“Come on!” Zuko said, grabbing the other boy by the elbow and pulling him forward. If they had been down there past the planned timeframe, then Longshot must have already set his distraction. They would need another one to get out of the Underground unimpeded. Jet was keeping guard at the back of everyone else, the prisoners were all struggling to keep pace and Jin was having trouble as well because she had the boy in her arms. He was the only one who could do it.

“It’s here,” Beom-pal said, abruptly stopping at a dead end. He made a quick, raising movement with his arms. Above them, a gaping hole opened.

“Stay here and wait for the others. Once I give the signal, use your earthbending to boost them up,” Zuko ordered. Beom-pal nodded before taking a step back, stamping a foot against the ground and propelling Zuko upwards towards the entrance.

He landed at the top where there were three Dai Li agents scribbling something away at a desk. The moment they saw Zuko, they rushed headfirst into him, arms swinging in furious motions. In the midst of the uproar, an arrow whipped past Zuko, hitting one of the Dai Li agents and pinning him against the wall by the sleeve of his shirt. Zuko turned to find the impassive face of Longshot’s Noh mask.

Longshot tilted his head a fraction of an inch downward. Zuko got the distinct impression that he was annoyed.

“I know, I know! We’re late!” Zuko apologetically said. “We got a little sidetracked.”

Longshot shrugged as he effortlessly bodied one Dai Li agent.

“We need another distraction,” Zuko said.

As Longshot nocked his arrow, he tipped his head sideways in question.

Zuko tried to think. A small distraction would not be enough. The Dai Li could easily call back-up to the building from the outside and they would be swarmed. The distraction needed to be big enough to not only keep the Dai Li away from the building but also prevent the agents chasing after them from following suit. The only thing he could think of was…

“A fire!” Zuko blurted out as he ducked an attack from one particularly persistent agent.

Longshot faced him, his arms wrapped around a Dai Li agent in a headlock.

“We need to start a fire.”

Longshot didn’t make any movement to show he approved.

“We’re being chased. It’s the only way to keep them from following us,” Zuko explained.

Longshot stilled for a moment before nodding his head in assent. In two quick movements, he kneed the Dai Li agent from the back before thrashing the man to the side. Then, he made a break for the oil lamps on the wall. Zuko followed suit, evading blows and rock gloves to smash the oil lamps against the wooden tables and shelves.

The fire started to spread. Zuko subtly tried to make it grow—with the fast movements of his swords and the surrounding chaos, it was a cinch to make the fire spread all over the first floor without alerting Longshot to the fact that he was firebending. The heat rose and orange-red flames engulfed the walls. The Dai Li agents began to cough against the smoke and after an instant of hesitation, they all made a mad dash for the outside.

Zuko and Longshot hurried to the opening and looked down.

It looked as though Jin and the others had just caught up. Jin was crouching down a little, clearly trying to catch her breath. Everyone else, save for Jet, looked exhausted and winded.

“Guys!”

They all looked up.

For some reason, Zuko suddenly felt self-conscious about his choice of distraction.

“We…um…we started a fire. I hope that’s okay,” Zuko said.

“ _No_ ,” Jet whispered. The mask obscured the expression on his face but he clearly sounded terrified. The hale-looking man was also gaping at the blazing inferno in terror.

“It was the only way we could keep them away from the building and from calling back-up. It would also stop them from following us out,” Zuko defensively said. A stinging dryness started to creep in his throat. From where he stood, he began to hear muffled voices rising above the hissing and crackling of the burning wood. Through the hazy window, he could see a line of firefighters rushing in their open robes with their ladders and buckets of water. Faintly, the firefighter’s drums began to sound, creating a steady rhythm, allowing the firefighters to time their movements when passing along the buckets.

Jet violently shook his head. His voice was quivering with fear. “Forget it! There’s no way I’m going through there!”

“I’m with the kid! I’d rather die than go through a fire like that again!” the hale-looking man said.

“Guys…” Beom-pal frantically said. “I can feel them coming…”

Jin placed both of her hands on Jet’s shoulders and soothingly said, “Jet, _please_. We need to get through there. It will be really quick—‘’

“Forget it! I won’t go! You can’t make me!” Jet yelled at her.

“Guys! They’ve just rounded a corner!” Beom-pal frantically said.

Jin grabbed Jet’s hand and laced her fingers with his. “Jet, I know you’re scared. But it will be okay. I’ll be with you all the way—‘’

“No! You don’t understand!” Jet harshly said, ripping his hand away from hers. His voice sounded so pitiful that Zuko suddenly felt sorry for him.

“Five minutes until they’re here!” Beom-pal warned.

“Jet, we have no choice, if we don’t move now, the Dai Li will catch us and you could end up back in prison—'’

“I don’t care!” Jet turned away from her, holding his hooked swords out. “I’d rather face the Dai Li then go through there!”

“They’re coming…guys…we really need to….” Beom-pal mumbled as he tugged at Jin’s arms. He moved his head from side to side, seemingly conflicted. Meanwhile, Jet and Jin were still yelling at each other, with Jin futilely attempting to tug Jet forwards. Just as Zuko made the decision to get down there to drag Jet by force, Beom-pal suddenly squared his shoulders.

“Jet…everyone...I’m really sorry for this….” Beom-pal took a deep breath and said in a voice loud enough to cut through the ruckus. _“The Earth King has invited you all to Lake Laogai!”_

Everyone, save for Beom-pal and Jin, suddenly stilled. Their bodies stiffened and their eyes glazed over in a truly creepy fashion.

“We are honored to accept his invitation,” they said in unison, their voices monotone.

Zuko barely had time to process what he had just seen when Beom-pal began to propel the prisoners upwards with his earthbending.

“We’re all going through that fire to get out of the building. Stay close to all the guys in the masks,” Beom-pal ordered.

Zuko and Longshot made quick work of reaching out and grabbing all the prisoners. Jin was the last one out, the boy securely fastened in her arms. He had the same vacant stare as everyone else.

“Put a cloth over your mouths!” Zuko ordered.

The prisoners stared blankly at him.

“You heard the man! Clothes over your mouths, now!” Beom-pal barked. Obediently, the prisoners all complied, ripping the hems of their clothes and making makeshift masks over their faces.

Once everyone had finished putting pieces of cloth over their mouths, Zuko hurriedly led everyone to the back door, all the while trying to subdue the flames. They burst out of the building in a flurry of smoke and ash.

As they all struggled to clamber over the high wall, Beom-pal yelled in between pants, “The Earth King graciously thanks you for your visit!”

“We thank the Earth King for the wonderful stay,” the prisoners all said.

Jet who was mid-climb, suddenly seized up.

He started to curse in his normal voice. “What on earth—'”

“No time to explain,” Zuko impatiently said, shoving the other boy over the wall. Jet landed on the other side with thud. Behind them, the fire had spread to the second and third floors of the building. By the roar of voices, he could tell that a crowd had gathered but luckily, they were at a great distance away and were all too focused on the orange-red inferno to notice anything else. The beating drums of the firefighters combined with the alarm bells of the roundsmen pitched to a crescendo.

As the last of them made it to the other side of the wall, a few Dai Li agents who were trying to help stop the fire saw them.

“Over there!” one of them yelled.

“Go, go!” Jet yelled, shoving everyone forward.

They tried to stay together but between the horde of firefighters passing along buckets of water, the rushing Dai Li agents and the crowd of people pressing in from all sides, they ended up separating.

* * *

It was just Jin’s luck that when they all split up, she got stuck with a colicky five-year-old and Lee and Jet who were rather like colicky five-year-olds themselves. The two argued the entire length of the deserted street they were running through and showed no signs of stopping.

“Let’s go here!” Lee said, giving yet another order that Jet would inevitably shoot down. It was clear that they were both used to being in charge. They ceaselessly barked commands at each other with neither making the effort to compromise.

“No, you moron! The road leads to a dead end. We should go here,” Jet retorted.

“The Dai Li saw us go into that direction! They’ll be sure to follow us there!”

“Which is exactly why we should keep going here! The Dai Li will obviously expect us to go the opposite direction so we should do the least expected thing!”

“What a stupid idea. You’re playing right into their hands!”

“No, _you’re_ the one playing right into their hands! You clearly don’t have a strategic bone in your body, you dumb fuck!” Jet furiously said.

“Hey!” Jin snapped, immediately putting her hands over the boy’s ears. “Knock it off! There’s a child in our presence. And you’re being crass with all your cursing.”

Lee folded his arms and smugly said, “Well, what can you expect from Jet? Clearly, being imprisoned still hasn’t done anything to improve his manners.”

“Oh, as if _you’re_ one to talk about manners—‘’

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“You know perfectly well what I mean. You maggoty, savage, unrepentant _ash-breathers_ are about as uncivilized as anyone can get!”

“Oh honestly, are you still on that?” Jin said, completely fed up with Jet’s nonsense.

Jet stopped and rounded on her. “I told you, I saw his uncle—‘’

“Heating his tea. Fine! But what other proof do you have?” Jin demanded.

Jet raised a finger, almost as if to say something but then he stopped.

“Well?” Jin said, tapping her foot.

Jet said nothing.

“See? You have none!” Jin triumphantly said.

Jet refused to give in.

“I would have gotten more proof if _someone_ helped me gather more evidence—‘’

“Oh, for Spirits’ sake, no one helped you ‘gather’ evidence because unlike you, we actually had enough sense to not talk about the war and violate Edict 1213! Which, by the way, I’ve told you about a _million times,_ ” Jin waspishly said.

“But he set the building on fire—‘’

“ _So, that we could escape_.”

“That still doesn’t explain how he started it.”

“I used the oil lamps, you fool!” Lee interjected.

“See? He used the oil lamps,” Jin said.

“That isn’t—‘’

“How is that explanation still unsatisfactory to you? Jet, don’t you realize that any halfwit could create an inferno with the right materials? Setting things on fire is hardly exclusive to firebenders,” Jin wearily said.

“Yes, but that fire spread far too _quickly_ —‘’

“I’ve just about had it with you!” Jin said. Honestly! Jet was the most obstinate, bullpig-headed person she had ever met! “First, you didn’t listen to any of my warnings, attacked Lee, and got yourself captured. Then, you behave atrociously towards the people trying to rescue you—‘’

“I didn’t ask him to rescue me! I’d rather die than accept help from an ash-breather—"

“If Lee was truly an evil ash-breather, would he have come here to risk his life to save you?” Jin demanded.

“…”

“He had nothing to gain and every reason not to help you and yet he did,” Jin pressed on.

Jet scowled and sulkily began to kick at the ground.

“The way I see it, you not only owe him your thanks but also an apology,” she continued.

“An apology for what!?” Jet said.

“For following him around all those weeks ago, for attacking him unprovoked and for insisting on these wild accusations!” Jin said.

“I’m not—‘’

“ _Jet_ ,” Jin firmly said. They were never going to get anything done unless she made the boys resolve whatever issues they had and make up with each other.

“Ugh, fine, whatever!” Jet griped. He faced Lee who had just been staring at their exchange in silence.

“Thank you for rescuing me. And sorry for accusing you of being a firebender and for attacking you in the teashop,” Jet grumpily said as he gave a quick, short bow.

“Jet…” Jin said in a warning tone.

“What!?”

“Give a _proper_ apology and thank you,” she said.

“The bow I gave him was already sufficient—‘’

“Jet. _Proper_ apology and thank you. _Now_ ,” she sternly said.

Jet sighed and gave a deeper bow at an angle of about seventy degrees, his eyes directed to the ground in formality. He said with barely concealed rage, “Thank you for rescuing me. And sorry for accusing you of being a firebender and for attacking you in the teashop.”

“And?” Jin prompted.

“And…for following you around.”

He stayed in that position, making sure to not move until Lee accepted his apology.

Lee loftily said, “Hmm…I don’t know…I think given the fact that we almost died today, a _full-on kowtow_ is in order—‘’

“And you!” Jin said, turning to Lee. “Stop baiting Jet and accept his apology!”

“Baiting?” Lee spluttered. “If anyone is baiting someone, it’s Jet! He always starts everything!”

“So, you have to rise his taunts every time like a child?”

Lee began to make sounds of protest. Jet gave a smug, “Ha!”

“Enough with your silly pissing contest,” Jin said. “Jet formally apologized. And I will admit that while what he did was very boneheaded—‘’

“Hey!” Jet complained.

“—it’s hardly worth a full kowtow. You’re just being petty. Now, are you going to continue to be ridiculous or will you accept his apology so we could finally move on to better things?” Jin said, crossing her arms.

Lee sighed. He nodded his head at Jet and gruffly said, “Fine. You’re welcome. And I forgive you.”

Jet straightened up and stretched his arms in relief.

“Great!” Jin said, clapping her hands together. She looked from Lee to Jet. “Now, that we have that sorted out, let’s figure out what we should do next.”

Then, before either of them could argue on which direction they should go, Jin hastily said, “I guess, the most important thing right now is to catch up with the others.”

“That’s easy. Where did you guys plan on hiding me?” Jet asked.

“We planned on bringing you to an abandoned warehouse in Xidan Street and waiting there until dawn. Jin managed to get you a new passport and forged papers. Our plan was to bring you through the Agricultural District by hiding you in a cart. Then when you get to the Outer Wall, you could use the documents to leave before the Dai Li are any wiser,” Lee said. The cart had been Jin’s idea. It seemed to her a more discrete method of going to the Outer Wall than by train.

“So, you think everyone else went there?” Jet asked.

“No. To get to Xidan we have to pass through Chang’an which is far too close to Lon Lon Yang. There must be a crowd forming there already because of the fire. I think they would be smart enough to avoid the area,” Jin said.

Even with seven new people, Jin had thought that they could still proceed with the plan. She was counting on them leaving the underground undetected and heading over to Xidan Street, where they could hide everyone else in the warehouse while they decided what to do next.

But obviously, with the fire and everything else that had happened, that would be impossible.

“They’re your friends. Where do you think Smellerbee and Longshot could have gone?” Lee said, turning to Jet.

Jin frowned, an idea suddenly forming in her head.

“Never mind Smellerbee and Longshot. It’s pointless to try to catch up with them especially since we’re not sure where they went,” Jin said.

“So, what should we do?” Jet asked.

“We catch up with Beom-pal,” Jin said.

“Who?” Jet blankly said.

“Rooster guy,” Lee supplied.

“He’s my friend. And unlike Smellerbee and Longshot, I know the _exact_ place he would have gone to.”

* * *

Jin quietly led them across the winding streets of Ba Sing Se, ducking away or pressing against the wall whenever someone passed by them. The alarm bells and the steady beating of the drums could still be heard all over the Lower Ring, indicating to Jin that the fire was still raging. There was no fear of running into any of the authorities—all the roundsmen and the Dai Li would have been directed to go quell the fire.

She didn’t stop until she saw the sweeping tiled roofs of the Imperial Hotel. The hotel’s high walls loomed over them, the oil lamps casting shadows against the dark-green pavilions and marble balustrades. They walked along the perimeter until they reached the back gate, where across it stood several shops. Jin led them towards a decrepit flower shop and uncovered a put-out oil lamp.

“What are we doing here?” Lee whispered.

“Shh,” Jin said as she stuck her hand into the lamp and plucked the key hidden in the lamp’s base. She unlocked the door and gestured for them to follow as she stepped inside. Beom-pal wasn’t there but she wasn’t surprised—she figured he would have gone to the Lotus Suite at the Imperial Hotel as it was bigger and was more secure. Taking care to be as quiet as possible, she moved one of the display cases to reveal a trap door. The door pulled open into a flight of stairs that led downwards.

She heard Lee and Jet give sighs of distaste.

“We’re going underground?” Lee complained.

“ _Again_?” Jet said.

“What do you two expect? We’re in the Earth Kingdom,” Jin said, a little miffed at all their whining. It was a good thing that the boy had fallen asleep in Lee’s arms. She had a feeling that if he were awake, he would protest too.

They trooped downstairs and moved along the cramped, winding passageways until they stopped at a small flight of stairs that led upwards to another trapdoor that was painted with a large, ornate white lotus. Jin climbed it and rapped lightly against the door. Nobody answered for several moments. She knocked on the door again, louder this time.

“Who knocks at the guarded gate?” a tremulous voice called out from behind the door.

“One who has eaten the fruit and tasted its mysteries,” Jin automatically replied.

The trapdoor quickly opened to reveal the haggard, terrified face of Beom-pal.

“Jin!” he said, sounding relieved. “Thank the Spirits you’re here!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternate summary for this chapter: In which Jin wrangles her two himbos into getting their act together.
> 
> Anyway, onto other things:
> 
> Wew. This is the most difficult chapter I've written to date. Fight scenes are always a nightmare to write. 
> 
> I’ve always been fascinated by the Dai Li’s brainwashing technique. What’s interesting to me is that the mindbent people like Joo Dee and Jet are not brainless zombies. It seems to me that until the trigger words are said, they essentially retain their core personality and “free will” so to speak. So, in my fic, I’ve headcanon that the Dai Li brainwashes all prisoners they get their hands on but the brainwashing is to erase memories and make it easier for them to get information. Then, they just send the people back out, either with false or erased memories and these people act as they would normally do until the phrases are said. 
> 
> Also, on Jin’s weapon being a rope dart: A rope dart looks like [ this. ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rope_dart) . The end doesn’t have to be a dagger, it could be like a ball or a claw. The flag is used to conceal the dart or distract and confuse enemies. It’s a pretty versatile weapon because while it’s mostly used for long-range attacks, it could be used to pull enemies in as well for hand to hand combat. I feel like at this point though, Jin’s primarily just using it to keep people from getting close to her. She isn’t as confident in her hand to hand combat skills yet.
> 
> The reason why I picked it was because of the incredible Michelle Yeoh. Initially, I had wanted to give her maybe a dual weapon so she, Jet and Zuko would be matchy-matchy dual fighters. But eventually, I decided that maybe that would be too trite and so, I picked a completely different weapon for her. I was toying with the idea of her wielding a rope dart but re-watching Michelle Yeoh in Magnificent Warriors really solidified the decision for me. Just a fun fact: like Jin, Michelle Yeoh started out as a dancer. When she shot Magnificent Warriors, she actually had no martial arts training whatsoever and managed to get through most of her fight scenes using her dance background. I mean look at her in this [ clip ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ0MPWfpjjw) !! This was only her fifth film but she wielded that rope dart like a pro. I think there are maybe only two or three shots where a body double was used. 
> 
> Also in writing her fight scenes, I was really inspired by [ Wonder Woman's lasso ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYCYQwOtaFQ) and Trevor Belmont’s [ Morning Star whip ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd7fEl_Bnw0). I just love their fight scenes and the fluid way the rope is used. 
> 
> Anyway, if you want to see how a fight would theoretically play out, check out.
> 
> [ This ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss64Bgtl-c0&t=486s)
> 
> [ And this ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m55cGtdbRSg&t=42s)
> 
> [ And this ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVKGjR4pxls)
> 
> As always, comments are greatly appreciated!


	13. No Matter What

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jin and Zuko have their first argument while everyone is miserable and exhausted.

Jin refused to tell Zuko anything more other than that the place was safe and that there was no danger of strangers coming across them. The room was reserved strictly for the members of his uncle’s Pai Sho Club.

There was no chance of the housekeepers or other hotel staff seeing the escapees either. Beom-pal had done the sensible thing of telling them to wait in the flower shop while he went to the front desk to book and pay for the room. He also gave strict instructions to the front desk not to bother him so they were ensured complete privacy, even from the hotel staff. Then, when things were settled, he went to retrieve the others through the secret passageway.

The room was three times the size of Zuko’s apartment and was lavishly furnished. At the center was a four-poster bed that had a thick mattress and was canopied by dark, green curtains. On one side was a low-set black lacquered table surrounded by cushions and offset by a classical scroll painting of the jagged mountains of Guilin. The other side held a gilded dressing panel and an ivory dresser, strategically placed by the door that led to the bathroom. The east end of the room had paneled doors that opened to a verandah overlooking the hotel’s picturesque gardens. On the _shoji_ screen of the windows were delicate calligraphy paintings of lotus flowers in various colors.

To Zuko’s dismay, it turned out that Beom-pal only had three escapees with him. He had tried his best to keep the group together but the crush of people and the commotion from the fire had forced them to separate. Their only consolation was Beom-pal’s pronouncement that he had seen the other three go with Longshot. But even this was dampened by the fact that he also had no idea where the other boy went or if he had managed to meet up with Smellerbee at all. He had wanted to check Xidan Street, but hadn’t dared once he saw the swell of people in the area.

At that point, everyone was too exhausted to ponder over their newest dilemma. Everyone agreed that it was best that they decide what to do the next morning. For now, sleep must come first. Jin, the woman and the boy were given the bed while the rest of the men had to sleep on the ground. Zuko had no complaints. The carpet spread over the wooden floors was thicker and more comfortable than the _futon_ he had back at home.

Zuko was so tired that he didn’t even care that he was crashing next to Jet, who also fell asleep instantly. He had a short, dreamless sleep and woke up only a few hours later, with Jet’s arm slung across his chest. Zuko whacked the other boy’s arm away and Jet gave a small grunt before rolling sideways to face Beom-pal who slept next to him. 

Zuko quietly moved to the paneled door and opened it an inch. The verandah had a perfect view of the oval-shaped pond lying underneath a huge, silk tree heavy with spring blossoms. On the pond were pods of beautiful, white lotus flowers. It was still dark outside but Zuko could sense that they were only an hour or two away from dawn. Firebenders knew this sort of thing instinctively—no matter where he was, he could always tell when Agni’s light was coming to breathe new life into his _chi_.

He slid the door closed and tried to calm himself. Morning was coming and they needed to act quickly. It would do no good for them to stay in this room, regardless of how secret it apparently was. The longer they stayed there, the worse it would be for them.

He looked around and after a moment of deliberation, decided that he would wake Jin first. It would be best if the two of them could discuss what to do before waking the others—he had a feeling that the escapees would be jittery and hysterical, once the full of extent of their precarious situation set in.

Slowly, Zuko made his way over to the bed where Jin slept. She was lying on the left side, curled up like a cat with drool pooling at the corner of her mouth. Her hair was in disarray and her eyes were scrunched up in an admittedly adorable fashion. He tried several times to shake her awake but she slept like a rock.

Fed up, Zuko placed his fingers on her arm and pinched her.

Jin woke up with a startled yelp and a rather painful hit to his nose.

“Ow! Fuck!” Zuko screeched.

“Sorry,” Jin mumbled, sounding not very sorry at all.

She pulled the blanket over her head.

Zuko forcefully pulled it off her.

“Wake up!” he hissed.

Jin cracked one eye open. “What time is it?”

“Just a little before dawn.”

She opened both of her eyes and pinned him with a truly hateful look.

“It’s not morning yet,” she waspishly said.

“And so?”

_“So, why did you wake me up?!”_

Ugh. Clearly, she wasn’t a morning person.

“Because we need to get going,” Zuko replied. He insistently tugged at her arm and didn’t stop until she gave an exasperated sigh and sat up.

“I told you not to worry. We’re safe here,” Jin said as she tried to rub the sleep away from her eyes. She had unwound her bun and her hair fell across her shoulders all the way down to the small of her back like a river. Zuko tried not to stare too much. For some reason, seeing her like this made him feel flustered.

“It’s still best that we don’t linger. We need to get these people out of the city right away. They’re not safe here. The Dai Li will surely be looking for them,” Zuko said. He started to pace back and forth the length of the bed, his hands moving with nervous energy. Things felt as though they were spiraling out of control. Everything seemed simple enough when they had planned to rescue Jet—but now they had seven other people to think about, three of whom were still missing.

“I know the original plan was to smuggle Jet out of the city using a cart but obviously, with four other people, that would be impossible. Do you know any out-of-the-way or discreet passageways to the Outer Wall? Or should we still go with a cart and hide them there? Maybe disguise them? Should we also get them forged documents—‘’

“Whoa, whoa,” Jin said, holding her hands up. “I think we should take a step back before we do anything. Let’s go out and have a look around first.”

“Look around? We don’t have time to go sightseeing! We need to leave _now_ ,” Zuko said.

“I’m not saying we should go sightseeing. I’m saying we should wait and see first, assess the situation and consider our options before making any hasty decisions,” Jin calmly replied.

Zuko restrained a sneer. Of course, she would insist upon that. Earth People and their damned wait-and-see philosophy!

“Alright. Let’s look around,” he said, not wanting to press the issue any further.

Jin told him that they would attract suspicion if they went out in their dark clothes. She walked towards the Guilin Mountains painting on the wall and pulled it off, revealing a sizeable hidden compartment filled with clothes and other knick-knacks. She rummaged through the compartment and picked out clothes for the two of them before making a beeline for the bathroom, telling him that he could get changed behind the dressing panel.

She came out moments later, still looking very sleepy. Her trousers fit her well but the tunic she had on was two sizes loose and had to be cinched with a belt around the waist so she wouldn’t look like a child playing dress up. Zuko's clothes however, fit perfectly.

Jin grabbed some money stashed in the hidden compartment and left a note to Jet and Beom-pal, telling them not to worry and that she and Zuko would be back soon. Then, the two of them tiptoed past the sleeping men on the floor and into the trapdoor that led to the secret passageway.

By the time they made it out of the flower shop, dawn had not yet broken. The sky was still dark and the streets were illuminated only by the stone lamps. There were just one or two people on the road, sweepers and cleaners doing the nightly rounds before their evening shift was over.

They tried to ask around for information but this proved to be useless—the people they talked to said that they had no idea why the alarm bells or the fire drums were rung, other than a vague rumor that a vicious fire had broken out in Wulai District.

“So, what should we do now?” Zuko sighed, feeling more and more frustrated. Dawn had arrived and still, they discovered nothing new. “Maybe we should go and survey one of the Dai Li safehouses? I’m sure they’ve been alerted to what had happened already.”

“I think…we should go and get some dark roast Tung Ting tea,” Jin said.

Zuko looked at her in disbelief. “What?”

They had five wanted persons in their room at the Imperial Hotel and Jin wanted _tea_? Agni’s Blood, she was worse than uncle!

Jin nodded, her eyes still bleary, “Yeah. And then afterwards, maybe we could get food for everyone else. I’m thinking we could go to Mr. Chow’s. He has the best snow buns in the entire city.”

“Fine,” Zuko said. He was still feeling fatigued so the idea of having some Tung Ting Tea, which was famous for inducing wakefulness, didn’t sound too terrible.

He trailed after Jin, thinking that this excursion wouldn’t last for more than an hour. To his annoyance, Mr. Chow’s was located three districts away from where they were and they ended up spending the better part of the morning traveling. What was worse was that Jin seemed to have no urgency whatsoever. She stopped at random shops and bought anything from hand towels to oil lamps to packets of sweets and rice crackers. Whenever anyone recognized her—which happened to be every five minutes, because apparently, she knew _everyone_ in this Agni-damned city—she would make it a point to stop completely and chat with them. Zuko tried to keep her on track but she ignored all of his attempts at cutting the conversation short. This only annoyed him further and as they pressed on into the city, he no longer made any effort to hide his displeasure.

By the time they went back to the hotel, three hours had already passed and it was almost lunchtime.

“Finally! I thought you would never finish,” Zuko groused. The two of them were walking along the road leading to the flower shop. “Thank you for thoroughly _wasting our time_ with this senseless shopping trip.”

Jin took a deep breath, as if to restrain herself before turning to face him. The smile on her face looked a little forced.

“Waste of time? What are you talking about? We have a long day ahead of us and we need all the energy we can get. I don’t want anyone fainting from lack of hunger when we travel to the Outer Ring. I got us all this food, didn’t I?”

“Which you could have very well done by stopping at the first stall! The Dai Li are out there looking for us and we have an entire room-full of escaped prisoners, yet you chose to waste _an entire morning_ shopping, gallivanting and gossiping with the whole of Ba Sing Se. And all in the name of these wretched snow buns!”

“For your information, aside from these snow buns, I also managed to find out that the Dai Li have not yet released any information to the general public about either the fire or the escaped prisoners. Despite this, a good number of them have been spotted on all the roads in Wulai and all other surrounding districts. Did you notice anything strange while we rode the trains?”

“No. It was the same, smelly, crowded hellhole it’s always been,” Zuko sulkily said. Because Mr. Chow’s was three districts away, they had to switch through at least two train lines.

“Oh. Maybe it’s because you’re new around here. But if you’ve lived in Ba Sing Se for as long as I have you can immediately tell when a place is under Dai Li surveillance. I noticed it the moment we stepped into the train station. There were Dai Li agents hiding by the rafters. Several of them in plainclothes were also riding the trains.”

“If they were in plainclothes, how could you even tell that they’re Dai Li agents?”

“Trust me. A born and bred Ba Sing Se citizen will know. There’s just something about their gait. All of them also have the same standard-issue timepieces. And did you notice that there was a checkpoint in Yu Yao which is—‘’

“An exit point of the city.”

Jin nodded her head. “Everyone has told me that they’ve set up checkpoints not just in Yu Yao but in _all_ exit points of the city. There is talk that if their investigations go nowhere, they might release an official statement soon, offering a reward of a hundred taels to anyone who could give any information about the perpetrators. Some people have seen us in our masks but nobody has a clue who we really are. Half the city believes that we are Spirits or demons or ghosts, coming to bring our wrath upon the Dai Li’s corrupt governance and the other half believe that we’re some sort of new Opera-themed street gang.”

Zuko stared at her in amazement.

“You were fishing for information this whole time,” he said in realization.

He was torn between being impressed and annoyed that there was a reason behind her dallying after all.

“And to think, you called me a snoop! You’re even nosier than I am,” Zuko said.

Jin’s smile was triumphant.

“It’s not snooping if people voluntarily tell me information that I want to get,” she loftily said. “And anyway, you’re just upset because contrary to what you said, this trip was _not_ a waste.”

“Yes, but did you really need to spend all that time talking about how Peng’s cousin-in-law was savagely beaten by the seventh brother of the Director of Personnel’s third concubine?”

“I couldn’t just cut the man off, that would be incredibly rude! And for your information, his name was Heng, not Peng.”

“Whatever,” Zuko grumped. “You were still being ridiculous.”

“Fine! Maybe I did get a bit carried away. But you don’t have to be such an ass about it,” Jin snapped. They had now reached the flower shop and were pushing the display case aside to access the trapdoor.

“I am not being an ass—"

“Yes, you _are_ an ass. You’re a dreadfully grouchy, horribly rude, appallingly bad-tempered ass! You’ve been nothing but a merciless grump to me this entire morning. No, not just this morning. Ever since we met! Control yourself. You’re victimizing us all,” Jin said.* The longer she spoke, the more she took on her grandfather’s aggressive Southern accent.

Zuko gaped at her for a moment, surprised by her anger. Since meeting her, he didn’t think that he had ever heard her raise her voice.

“I’m just worried about the situation and am trying to fix it. Unlike _you_ , who must make the time to fawn over which rice cracker flavor was the best—‘’

“Oh, bother with that! We are _all_ stressed but we don’t use it as an excuse to be unpleasant. You don’t see me blowing up over every little thing. Why, you’re worse than the most unreasonable of customers!”

That comment stung and Jin knew it. The two of them had both worked in the service industry long enough to know that nothing was worse than being compared to an unreasonable customer.

“You’re not being fair! Is it so wrong to be concerned about the others’ safety?” Zuko shot back.

He glared at her and tried not to get distracted by her flushed cheeks and pinched brows. For some reason, he wanted to bait her into becoming angrier. There was something satisfying about seeing her break from her usual placid and cheerful demeanor. The fact that Jin was the sort who only looked lovelier the angrier she got, had nothing to do with it at all.

“It is when you’re being an absolute _beast_ about it! Now, I see perfectly well why Jet attacked you in the first place.”

“Fine! Go side with Jet so the two of you can just gang up against me, why don’t you?”

Jin turned away from him and aggressively knocked on the trap door.

“Who knocks at—‘’

“One who has eaten the fruit and tasted its mysteries!” Jin yelled.

Beom-pal apprehensively opened the trapdoor and Jin marched into the hotel room without another word. When Zuko entered after her, he found that everyone in the room was staring at him awkwardly, save for Jet, who looked oddly smug.

“You heard everything, didn’t you?” Zuko sighed.

Jet smiled widely.

He tipped his chin up and crowed, “We did.”

* * *

Moments later, Jin realized that she wasn’t angry so much as she was hungry.

After consuming three cups of Tung Ting tea, four snow buns and an entire piece of _jianbing_ , she felt better and was immensely guilty about her outburst towards Lee. She resolved to make up with him immediately. Things were bad enough as it was without her adding to the tension by getting into a petty fight. She tried several times to catch his eye but it seemed that he was determined to ignore her.

Sighing to herself, she decided to be practical by dealing with other things first. She called Beom-pal, telling him that she wanted to talk to him in private and the two of them headed to the bathroom.

Beom-pal perched himself at the edge of the wooden bathtub and miserably picked at his snow bun. He looked just as terrible as her—there were bags and dark circles under his eyes and his hair was horribly braided.

“Were there any Order members at the front desk who saw you?” Jin began.

“No. Lucky for us no Order member was on duty when I went to book the room.”

“Thank the Spirits,” Jin said, relieved. At least, they didn’t have to worry about the Order asking questions about what Beom-pal was doing in the Lotus Suite so late in the evening. “What if someone from the Order is in the hotel when you check out?"

"I'll just tell them that I came from a party and used the suite to sleep off a hangover. Wouldn't be the first time a member has done that."

"Alright," Jin nodded. That made sense. Beom-pal might get a lecture about using an Order safehouse for something as trivial as a place to sleep off a hangover, but it was infinitely better than being caught going behind the Order's back. "How is everyone?”

“They’re very shaken but other otherwise, really grateful that we rescued them.”

“And the boy?”

“Still not talking. I think he’s pretty traumatized.” Beom-pal shook his head, shuddering a little. “Man. I can’t believe the Dai Li arrested _a kid_. I know we’re fucked up but…I just never thought that we’d stoop so low as to imprison _a child_.”

“I know. It’s so strange. What could the child have done that was so bad the Dai Li had to arrest him? And it’s so much worse when you consider the place where they kept him,” Jin grimly said. She quickly relayed to Beom-pal the strange conditions of the boy’s imprisonment.

“Shit,” Beom-pal whispered, as soon as she finished speaking.

“The poor boy was practically freezing,” Jin said.

“ _Spirits_. What a nightmare. And they’ve even mindbent him too. Well, actually they mindbent _everyone_. But I’m sure you’ve already realized that because of last night.”

“Can you reverse it?”

He shook his head. “No. Too complex for me. I mean we haven’t exactly gotten to that part of the curriculum yet.”

“This is too much for us. We’re going to have to ask help from a senior member,” Jin decided. Most of the older members of the Order had basic training in reversing the effects of mindbending; it was to ensure that during smuggling operations, they would be able to return the free will of the political targets before they would be released from the city. Jin shifted in her place, her head tipped to the ceiling in thought. “Lucky for us, Uncle Seiji is coming back from his mission today.”

“Do you really think he would help us without telling the Order?” Beom-pal worriedly said. “I know he would never hesitate to cover for you…but what if this time, it’s too much?”

“Uncle Seiji won’t rat us out,” Jin confidently said, thinking back to all the times her uncle would acquiesce to her requests, even if it meant going directly against her grandfather or mother. “But that’s not our only problem.”

Jin told him about the Dai Li’s increased surveillance of the city.

“We have to use the Order passages,” Beom-pal said, the moment Jin was finished. The Order passages were a series of underground tunnels that cut across the city and stretched all the way out to the Outer Ring. They were usually used by the Order in operations involving the smuggling out of political prisoners. It was a closely guarded secret—to reveal them to outsiders merited a punishment of the highest order.

It was exactly the reason why Jin and Beom-pal hadn’t dared to suggest the Lotus Suite when they were discussing places to hide Jet and instead, opted for the warehouse at Xidan. They were already going behind the Order’s back and using crucial Order information with this venture; they didn’t want to push their luck by revealing an Order safehouse.

Jin blinked at him, surprised that he was the one to bring up the suggestion first. Between the two of them, she was usually the one who had the proclivity for bending the rules.

“But that would be breaking Order rules.”

“We’ve already broken the rules by bringing them here. Not to mention numerous laws while we were at it.” Beom-pal’s voice became increasingly hysterical as he began to tick off each finger. “Aiding in the escape of prisoners, direct assault upon persons of authority, trespass of government property—‘’

“Arson—‘’

“Oh, Spirits. _Arson_ ,” Beom-pal squeaked. He scrubbed a hand over his face, looking as though he was ten seconds away from a nervous breakdown.

“Arson…” he repeated to himself, as if he couldn’t quite believe it. “We set fire to a whole building and committed _arson_. That’s penalized by at least _twelve years_ of imprisonment.”

“Only if we get caught,” Jin interjected, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

It didn’t work. Beom-pal was twisting of the hem of his shirt, looking even more distressed. Jin placed her hands on his shoulders and squeezed them comfortingly.

“Hey…it’s gonna be okay. We’re not going to get caught. The Dai Li don’t have any idea about the Order passages—‘’

“But what if a member of the Order had a mission today and will be using the passages? What if we run into them?”

“Then, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” Jin said. “The main thing now is getting everyone to the Outer Wall. Uncle Seiji should be back by now. He’d help us get them out of the city without telling the Order.”

“Okay,” Beom-pal breathed.

“I’ll be the one to handle getting them out of the city. I think you should take care of finding Longshot and Smellerbee. You need to check out of the room anyway. And on your way, can you stop by at Lan’s? Tell her if anyone asks, I went to school directly. I told Gramps and mom beforehand that I was sleeping over at her place and asked Lan to cover for me.”

“Got it,” Beom-pal said.

“Do you want to take a break?” Jin kindly said. He was rubbing his eyes, his hands shaking and trembling with anxiety. If she didn’t let him leave, she had a feeling he would implode.

“Yes, please,” he said, relieved. He made a move towards the door but Jin stopped him.

“Beom-pal?”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry,” she quietly said. She felt terribly guilty for dragging him into this much trouble. She had always done so, even when they were children, but this time she felt like she had gone too far.

“What for?” Beom-pal’s voice sounded firmer than it had been all morning. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “It was my choice to come with you.”

“But—”

“And I wouldn’t have had it any other way. You’re crazy if you think I’m going let you face this alone,” he said.

Jin was rendered speechless. At that moment, there were no words in existence that could accurately express how grateful she was for his friendship. She tackled him into a hug, trying to put as much feeling in her touch. Beom-pal hugged her back, understanding perfectly well what she was trying to convey.

They pulled apart, smiling to each other. Jin moved aside to let him walk through the door, but not before telling him to get Lee.

Lee came in a minute later, looking much more conciliatory.

“Beom-pal said you wanted to speak to me,” he said. He stood several feet away from her, his body tensed and poised, as if he was prepared for another argument. But there was an open, entreating look in his eyes and instantly, Jin knew that he was finally prepared to make up.

“So, I see that the snow buns have at least improved your mood,” Jin lightly said, determined to dispel the awkwardness between them.

“And yours,” Lee replied, the corners of his mouth twitching. He gave her a small, amused smile. “You have quite a mouth on you when you’re angry.”

Jin blinked at him, completely disarmed by his comment. Her face suddenly felt hot, and she looked away with a shrug. She knew how to deal with complaints, gruff rebuttals and ill-tempered outbursts from Lee. Light-hearted teasing was a more recent development.

Before she could respond, Lee leaned against the bathroom counter and folded his arms, saying, “Although, I supposed I deserved it. You’re right. My behavior was…unwarranted. If I had an issue, I could have calmly communicated it to you.”

“And I shouldn’t have spent all that time talking to Heng _Xiao Sheng_ about how his cousin-in-law was savagely beaten by the seventh brother of the Director of Personnel’s third concubine,” Jin said, shooting him a guilty look. “I’m sorry for taking too long. It’s just that…I don’t like making hasty decisions. I just wanted to learn as much as I could about what we were up against. Although I probably could have been faster about it.”

“Probably,” Lee chuckled. He leaned forward and held his hand out to her. “Friends?”

His brows were furrowed in nervous anticipation, as if he believed that it was inevitable that Jin would reject his peace offering and was just bracing for the moment when she would turn away from him. How odd. They had a slight, stupid argument, brought on by hunger and lack of rest from a night of excitement—something so minor was hardly enough to destroy their friendship beyond repair.

Jin grabbed his hand and squeezed it, trying to put as much re-assurance as she could in her touch.

“No matter what,” she confirmed.

Now, it was his turn to flush. He cleared his throat and turned away from her, suddenly becoming transfixed by the tiled walls.

“So…what did you need to talk with me about?” he asked.

“I know a way we could get out of the city. But…”

“But what?”

“You can’t ask me how I know about it. It’s a secret,” Jin bluntly said. “You can’t tell your uncle that I’ve told you about it either.”

“Let me guess. Secret Pai Sho club?” Lee wryly said.

Jin nodded. “Yes. Although, I guess you’ve probably figured out that it’s not just some random Pai Sho Club, right?”

“Right. But I won’t pry unless you or Uncle are ready to tell me,” Lee said, smiling. There was a strange look on his face. “We all have our secrets.”

Jin smiled, relieved that he wasn’t pushing the matter.

“What happens once we manage to bring them to the Outer Wall?”

“My Uncle Seiji works as a captain for a junk ship. I think he can pull some strings to smuggle them out through the boat.”

“And the boy? He still won’t talk. If we don’t know anything about him, how can we contact his parents or relatives?”

“Chancellor Yang Ming knows who he is,” Jin said, remembering that the chancellor had said that the boy was the son of someone. “I’m sure he’ll clear things up once we talk to him. Let’s just hope that he’s with Longshot. In the meantime, I’ll ask Uncle Seiji to take him in.”

The two of them worked out a plan and talked over the rest of the logistics. Jin felt grateful for Lee’s presence—unlike Beom-pal, he was very calm over the whole thing and made for a great sounding board. After they finalized everything, they went back to the main room, where Jet upon seeing their friendly expressions, immediately pouted.

“I take it you two have made up?” he sulkily said.

“Yes,” Jin cheerfully replied.

He gave Jin a disappointed look. “And to think, I thought you had finally come to your senses.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it turns out that Jin can be a very hangry person when she doesn't have food in her belly lol
> 
> But on a more serious note, I was re-watching ATLA and realized that in real life, Zuko's constant grouchiness would probably make him an unpleasant companion. Iroh is a total saint for putting up with Zuko's temper without ever lashing back (well, most of the time). I honestly feel like I would have folded faster than Jin and would have snapped back, even when I'm on a normal mood and not sleep-deprived, exhausted and hungry like she was.
> 
> *Also, Jin's rant to Zuko is a nod to Howl's Moving Castle. I just really liked Howl's line "Control yourself. You're victimizing us all" and wanted to include it haha
> 
> A little unrelated but I really love permaconfusion's sketches of Jin and kinda imagine her outfit in this chapter to look like [ this ](https://www.instagram.com/p/CDu6_NwFqbv/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link)
> 
> Anyway, school has just started for me so there's gonna be a tweak in updating schedule. The next chapter will still be updated next Friday, but beyond that, updates will be on a different time. I'll just announce in the notes in the next chapter.
> 
> As always comments are greatly appreciated!


	14. Wild Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jin asks her Uncle Seiji for a favor.

There was a flurry of activity before they left.

Jin said that they should take advantage of having a proper bathroom and suggested on making time for a quick bath. To Jin’s surprise, Zuko readily agreed—he hadn’t had a proper bath since they went on the run, after having been officially declared as traitors by the Fire Nation. Everyone, except Beom-pal (who had an _en suite_ bathroom back at his mansion and was therefore, no stranger to a good bath tub) took turns washing themselves.

The bath was heavenly. Zuko increased the fire in the brazier underneath the tub and stretched his body in the water, savoring the feeling of having a good, proper soak. He and Uncle hadn’t been able to save up for a trip to the bathhouse yet and in their apartment building, the water in the communal bathroom was rationed—because the water pump was a good distance away from the building, each tenant was entitled to only a bucketful of water. After he finished washing and changing, Zuko went back to the main room where he found Jin handing out lit oil lamps to Jet and the woman.

Before they went down, the escapees, led by the hale-looking man who they learned was named Yutang, insisted on properly thanking Zuko, Jin and Beom-pal. They stood before the three and sank to their knees, giving three full kowtows in gratitude. Jin and Beom-pal looked embarrassed but Zuko was secretly pleased. It had been a long time since anyone had bowed to him and showed him any respect, befitting a prince.

Then, they said goodbye to Beom-pal and went underground. The passages branched off into another tunnel, left of the trapdoor that led to the hotel room. Zuko now understood why Jin took the time to buy the oil lamps. Unlike the Dai Li’s underground system, these passages were crudely made and had no lighting. The walls were rocky and uneven and Zuko was half-afraid the ceiling would collapse in on them. Dust and mud brushed against their clothes and fell on top of their heads. Zuko would have complained but the pleasure of having a good wash was so strong that he didn’t even care that the efforts of his bath was erased in a matter of minutes.

The passageway was also very narrow and everyone had to walk in single file. It was agreed that Jin would lead the way, Jet would keep guard from the back while Zuko would stay right behind her so if anything happened, he would be able to assist her. The boy would not go with anyone else but Zuko and so hand in hand, he walked with the boy trailing after him. As he held the child’s hand, he felt it again—the surging, thrumming heat of the boy’s _chi_. He ground his jaw and looked ahead, unwilling to think about or deal with the implications of such a thing just yet. So far, the boy had not yet shown any inclination towards bending. For all he knew, the child just had an unusually high body temperature.

 _One thing at a time_ , he repeated to himself.

They walked for what seemed like hours. In between walking, they would take breaks and Jin would pass around the rice crackers and sweets she had bought from the market. During the course of their journey, Zuko learned more about the escapees. The hale-looking man who was called Yutang, was a veteran of the Siege and was arrested because he had picked a fight with a Dai Li agent in a bar; he was drunk and had made the mistake of calling the man a useless coward.

“ _Which he was._ Bastards never even joined the Siege until the very last minute,” Yutang harrumphed.

The woman was named Li Jie and she was a widow. She was arrested because she had dared to openly conduct a soldier’s memorial for her late husband who died in the Siege. The other man, Nie Er was arrested because someone had reported him for possessing banned literature. The boy remained silent and they continued to know nothing about him.

The prisoners were also curious about who their saviors were. Knowing how chatty she could be, Zuko was afraid that Jin would start carelessly blabbering details about their personal lives. Something could still go wrong and if ever one of the prisoners would be separated from them, Zuko didn’t want the person to have information which the Dai Li could use to track them down. Luckily, Jin had the good sense not to say anything that could be used to reasonably pinpoint their identities and subtly avoided personal questions by changing the topic or re-directing attention to another person. Zuko stopped being tense and left all the talking to Jin, trusting her to distract the prisoners from prying into who they were.

In some ways, these passages were worse than the Dai Li’s Underground. They were cramped and dark, to the point of claustrophobia—at least the Underground was fairly spacious and was lit by lamps. The longer they stayed there, the more he felt cut off from the sun. When everyone’s lamps went out and there was nothing but darkness, Zuko couldn’t bear it and instinctively reached forward to touch Jin’s hand. He had meant it to be momentary, only a means to anchor himself and to ensure that he was not trapped in a dark, empty void by feeling someone else’s body heat. But again, Jin mistook his gesture as an attempt to hold her and closed her fingers around his. This time, he didn’t make an attempt to snatch his hand back and Jin held it the rest of way, all while being thoughtful enough not to say anything.

Finally, they stopped at a dead end that held another trap door. Jin knocked on it and when no one replied, she groped about the surrounding wall, brows furrowed in concentration. She stopped abruptly and stuck her hand into what seemed to be another hidden compartment and from it, pulled out a key. She unlocked the trapdoor and gestured for everyone to follow her.

They emerged into a simple, wooden hut filled with sparse furniture. There was dust on their faces and as they walked about, they left mud tracks on the floor. Jin pulled some hand towels from the bag strapped to her waist and told them to clean up while she went outside to prepare something. Zuko wiped his face and then, the boy’s with the towel and looked out the window. His eyes widened in amazement. Outside, there were rows upon rows of rice stalks, gently swaying in the breeze. From their vantage point, the fields stretched on infinitely, all the way to the horizon. It was as though they were in the middle of a great, golden-green sea.

“Whoa,” Jet breathed, having also caught a glimpse of the window. “Feels just like home.”

There was a certain wistfulness, a longing for home in his voice that Zuko recognized very well.

“You lived in a farm?” Zuko said.

For once, Jet didn’t react with hostility.

“All my life until I came to Ba Sing Se,” he said, eyes still fixed intently on the fields outside. “My family—well the whole village actually—were farmers. Even when I started the Freedom Fighters, we continued to support ourselves by farming.”

“You know I’ve always wondered…did you ever meet anyone _interesting_ while you were a Freedom Fighter?” Zuko said, internally wondering if his question was too obvious. He had suddenly remembered Jet’s connection with the bison and was trying to discretely know more. If Jet was going to be smuggled out of the city by Jin’s uncle today, then this might be his only chance.

Luckily, Jet seemed to be too transfixed by the rice fields to be suspicious. That, or he just felt like showing off.

“Does the Avatar count as someone interesting?” he smugly said.

Zuko’s heart leapt with hope.

“You know the Avatar?”

“Worked with him once before,” Jet said.

“Before?”

“Yep. Before I came here.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“What did you and him work on?”

Jet suddenly seemed embarrassed.

“Oh…it was nothing important. Just rescuing people from the evil firebending bastards, that sort of thing. But that was it really. Haven’t seen him since.”

“Oh,” Zuko said, disappointed. Another dead end. “So, you haven’t been in contact with him?”

“No. Although I doubt he would want to talk to me, even if I could.”

“Why?”

“I…um…am not exactly in good terms with the Avatar. Or his friends,” Jet said.

 _Welcome to the club_ , Zuko silently added.

“Although, I guess I have no one to blame for that but myself. I could be a little irrational,” Jet muttered to himself.

“Only a little?” Zuko couldn’t help but be snarky. The knowledge that Jet wasn’t colluding with the Avatar after all, put him in a bad mood again.

Jet opened his mouth but then promptly closed it, as if he thought the better of it. He and Zuko stood next to each other for several moments, just staring at the rice fields.

“Hey,” Jet suddenly said.

“What?”

He turned to look at Jet, surprised to see that the other boy had bent down into a deep, formal bow, hands at his sides and eyes kept firmly on the ground.

“I wanted to thank you again. For rescuing me,” he said. He still refused to make a full kowtow although his voice unmistakably sounded more sincere than when he made his first apology. “I really do appreciate it.”

“It’s no problem,” Zuko gruffly said, feeling awkward. He wasn’t sure how to act now that Jet wasn’t regarding him with contempt.

They waited for several minutes more before Jin arrived and told everyone to come outside. They trailed out the front door where an emu-horse-drawn cart filled with bales of rice stood in front of them. Jin explained that her uncle’s house was about two _li_ from where they were. Everyone but Lee needed to get into the cart where the bales of rice would hide them. Jin spent some time arranging everybody before going up the front and taking the reins of the emu-horse. Because the boy still refused to leave Zuko’s side, Jin had no choice but to allow him to sit in front.

It turned out that Jin had no idea how to drive an emu-horse and even seemed to be a little afraid of handling the creature. She sat in horror, making distressed sounds as she futilely attempted to direct the emu-horse, who stubbornly insisted on going around in circles. She looked so pitiful and ridiculous that Zuko couldn’t help but laugh at her.

“What the fuck is happening out there?” Jet complained from underneath the bales of rice. “Are you trying to punish us?”

“Jin can’t drive!” Zuko replied before Jin could say anything else.

“Tell her to relax! If she’s tense, then the emu-horse will also be nervous. Animals can sense this sort of thing.”

“I don’t blame the emu-horse. If Jin was the one handling me, I’d be nervous too.”

Jin glared at Zuko and anxiously said, “Stop talking! I can’t drive with the two of you yammering in my ear.”

“You can’t drive _at all_ ,” Zuko said.

The emu-horse veered off sharply from the road, sinking into a nearby paddy field with a jolt. Pained groans erupted from the cart.

“Can somebody please take the reins from Jin before we _all die_?” Jet dramatically said.

Zuko had mercy on everyone by taking control of the reins. Sheepishly, Jin said that she was a city girl through and through and never had to learn how to deal with or control animals (other than of course, a few domesticated pets). Zuko smartly replied that it was a good thing he was there, otherwise she might have ended up driving the cart to a ditch somewhere.

Zuko handled the emu-horse while Jin directed him to her uncle’s house. When Jin said that Seiji’s house was located in the Outer Wall, he had no idea that Jin meant it _literally_. Like the restaurants in Jiufen District, Seiji’s home was one of the many stone houses built into the side of the Outer Wall. The houses were all connected by a series of spindly, winding stairways that rose from several raised platforms at the bottom. Again, Zuko found himself being awed by the sheer size of the wall. It was so massive that the houses and the connecting stairways looked nothing more than leaves connected by creeping vines.

Jin said that these houses were mostly populated by people who worked in the Agricultural District and the Outer Wall—farmers, soldiers stationed by the wall, shipmen who worked in ferries and junk ships and officials who worked in Customs and Refugee Processing.

Jin told Zuko to park the cart at a roofed shed which seemed to house various riding animals, carriages and carts. She told the others to wait in the cart, saying that she needed to talk with her uncle first and that it would be best that everyone else make the climb up his house when it was night so that they would be under the cover of darkness. Jet volunteered to keep watch while Zuko accompanied her. The boy, who had fallen asleep, was left in the care of the widow Li Jie.

Seiji’s house was at the very top and they had to climb what felt like several _li_ of steep stairs. Zuko paused for a moment, unable to keep himself from admiring the view. It was sunset and the dimming, afternoon light made everything awash with a golden glow. From his vantage point, the entire Agricultural District looked like a field of warm, gentle fire.

When they had finally reached his house, night had fallen and the only light were the lamps plastered by the front pillars. Jin fished out a key from her bag and unlocked the door, gesturing for Zuko to come inside. The house was mid-sized, sparsely decorated and neat. The front consisted of a verandah which offered a stunning view of the Agricultural District. Beyond the door was what people in the Fire Nation would call a _genken_ or an entrance room, which had a wooden bench where shoes were to be removed. Further from the _genken_ was a long corridor with two rooms on each side, separated by thin _shoji_ walls whose paper screens slid open to expose each room. There was a sizzling sound and the smell of fish in the air.

“Uncle!” Jin called out, taking off her shoes. Zuko took off his own shoes as well, feeling slightly self-conscious that Jin and Seiji would see his worn and hole-filled socks. “Are you there? It’s me, Jin!”

“Jin!” Seiji’s voice called out from one of the rooms. He sounded surprised but pleased. “I’m in the kitchen!”

They walked along the corridor where at the last minute, Jin seemed to have lost her nerve. She told Zuko to wait there while she went forward and slid open a paneled door that led to a room at the back.

“Uncle!” he heard Jin say.

“Jin! What are you doing here? I wasn’t aware that you were due for a visit,” Seiji said in the Eastern dialect.

“I…um…was in the area and thought it would be nice to eat dinner with you,” Jin haltingly replied in the Eastern tongue.

“Oh. But don’t you have school, today?”

“Well…um…my head teacher was absent so we had the day off—‘’

“Absent or you decided to play hooky? Isn’t Old Yima your head teacher in Tamsui District School? I don’t think the woman has ever taken a day off in her life.” Seiji sounded stern for a moment before breaking out into a more jovial tone. “I’m just messing with you! If you played hooky I won’t judge. The Jade Emperor knows that I’ve cut school too many times to count when I was your age. In fact, I think it’s good that you’re taking some time off. I always thought that you’re taking school way too seriously.”

“Yes, that’s exactly why I’m here Uncle! To take some time off,” Jin said. “Do you need any help?”

She was clearly stalling. She hadn’t even told Seiji that Zuko was outside waiting for her.

“Yes. Get some more fish and noodles. I just made some for myself. I wasn’t exactly expecting your company you know,” Seiji said.

“You should probably prepare more. I’ve brought other people…”

“Who?”

Jin opened the door and Zuko guiltily sprang back, trying to act as if he hadn’t just been eavesdropping.

“Lee, right?” Seiji said. His short hair was pulled back into a ponytail and his sleeves were rolled up, revealing a swathe of tattoos on his upper arms. He was busily whisking something on a bowl with his chopsticks. “Mushi _Laoyeh_ ’s kid?”

“Nephew, sir,” Zuko said, hastily giving him a bow. “Ten-thousand fortunes, Seiji _Xiang Sheng_.”

Seiji bowed back, smirking a little once he stood up.

“Did you work it out?” he said, turning around to dunk the mixture on a frying pan. Jin puttered about the cabinets, grabbing fish and other spices. She picked up a knife from the drawer and began to expertly cut the fish up.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Your fight with…what was his name…Jet, was it? You got into a fight with him over cards, right?” Seiji said. “Did you two work it out?”

At this, Jin and Zuko uneasily looked at each other.

“….In a manner of speaking,” Zuko mumbled.

“That’s good to hear. You know…I’ve always maintained that it’s good for kids to get into trouble every now and then. But not _too much_ trouble.” The oil cackled and a bit of it splattered against his arm. Seiji quickly tried to lower the temperature of the flames by partially covering the burner with a fire cap. “So, what are you doing here? Teacher also absent, Lee?”

“I don’t go to school, sir,” Zuko said, feeling very awkward that he was just standing there. He shot Jin a look and gestured at Seiji, silently pleading with her to tell him. Jin bit her lip and said nothing, continuing to steadfastly cut the fish.

“Ah. Well, school isn’t for everyone. Never really liked it myself.” He suddenly snapped his fingers as he shook the pan. “Oh! Maybe you two can bring me some news from the city. Everyone in the Outer Wall has been starved for more information.”

“News about what?” 

“About the fire.”

“F-Fire?” Jin stammered.

“Yes. It’s all anyone would talk about when I got back. Said it was started by people in masks. Mimaki’s convinced it’s a new gang. He’s not the only one. All the Mountain Masters of the other gangs think the same. The Shaho Gang, Bamboo Union, Wah Kee…they’re all trying to find out more. Can’t have a new gang encroaching their territories…”

“Wow…that’s….so…interesting,” Jin said. She and Zuko exchanged alarmed looks. It was bad enough that the Dai Li were after them—they didn’t need all of Ba Sing Se’s crime lords hot on their heels as well.

“Personally, I don’t think it’s a new gang. I think they’re some sort of vigilante group. People who’ve seen the injustice of the Dai Li and have decided to take the law into their own hands.”

“What makes you think so, Uncle?” Jin said.

“You didn’t hear it from me. But I’ve heard from Dal-moon that they broke out a bunch of prisoners from the Dai Li’s underground system. The Dai Li aren’t saying anything though. They probably don’t want to admit that someone breached their security. Makes them seem incompetent….”

Seiji trailed off. He had turned around while he was talking and caught the horrified expression on Jin’s face.

He immediately put the fire on his stove out and moved closer towards his niece. “Jin. What’s wrong?”

At the genuine concern in her uncle’s voice, Jin’s defenses collapsed.

“Uncle!” Jin desperately said, wringing her hands.

“What? What happened?”

“I lied. School wasn’t cancelled at all. I came here because I need your help and I didn’t know who else to turn to.”

“What is it?” Seiji’s voice sounded more serious now.

“I got into trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“I’ll tell you. But you can’t tell mom. Or gramps.”

“Why not? What is so serious that your mother and grandfather cannot be told?”

There was a moment of silence as Jin struggled to speak.

Seiji’s eyes widened and he seemed to have suddenly come to a conclusion.

“By Oma and Shu, _are you pregnant?_ ” Seiji thundered. Zuko blinked, startled at how aggressive Seiji sounded. He didn’t think it was possible for his soft Eastern drawl to sound as anything but pleasant.

“What!? No—‘’

“Who is it? Who’s the boy?” Seiji said, voice dangerously low.

“There is no boy—Uncle you are completely misunderstanding—‘’

His eyes fell upon Zuko.

“Wait. Is that why he’s here? Is it him? Is he the—‘’

“ _NO_!” Jin and Zuko yelled at the same time.

Jin attempted to speak but she was cut off by Seiji who started to talk so fast in the Eastern dialect that even Zuko had trouble understanding him. His voice became shakier and shakier and it sounded suspiciously like he was crying.

“Spirits be damned, my poor, innocent niece… _ruined_ …forgive me Jie Fu*, I have failed to look after your daughter,” Seiji spluttered, looking down to the ground. Jin tried to speak again but Seiji didn’t give her the chance. He placed his hands on her shoulders and shook her. “So, who is it? Tell me who and I’ll force him to make it right. Or did you come to me because you want me to discreetly bring you to a doctor—”

“N-No, don’t cry Uncle, that’s not what I’m doing!” Jin said in a placating tone. “I told you, it’s not that at all…”

“Then what?”

Jin took a deep breath, steeling herself. Then, in a hushed voice, she explained everything that had happened.

As soon as Jin was finished, Seiji’s voice exploded across the whole house. _“WHAT!?”_

“Uncle, I'm so sorry! Honestly, we thought we could just smuggle Jet out of the city by ourselves because he was just one person but now there are eight of them and the Dai Li are all over and I know I’m asking so much of you…” Jin petered off into a string of apologies.

“But…but….why would you…who sanctioned this?” Seiji said, sounding indignant. “You’re way too young to even be allowed on missions like this—‘’

“That’s the thing. It’s not sanctioned at all. Grandfather doesn’t know about it,” Jin replied.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Seiji whispered, looking a little shell-shocked. He then stood up and tumbled over to one of the tea jars, opening the cover and pulling out a roll of tobacco.

“Uncle!” Jin said, disappointed. “You promised me you had stopped smoking.”

“Yes, well, you’re going to have to forgive me seeing as you had just told me that you and your friends broke into the Dai Li’s underground prisonholds, released eight prisoners and have made yourselves into the enemies of not just the Dai Li but also every…oh I don’t know…fucking gang here in the Lower Ring who thinks you’re some new criminal syndicate trying to take over their business and territories!”

Seiji grabbed some spark rocks and with shaky hands, lit his tobacco roll. Jin looked down, chastened.

A long moment of silence followed. Seiji blew out several puffs of smoke.

“Where are they now?” Seiji finally asked. His tone was gentler.

“In the parking shed,” Jin meekly answered.

“We have a shipment tomorrow morning. I could smuggle them out by then.”

Jin and Zuko sighed in relief.

“You will help us?” Jin asked.

“Yes.”

“And you won’t tell mom? Or gramps?”

“I won’t.”

Jin launched herself at her uncle.

“Spirits, I love you!”

“You’re lucky you’re my favorite niece,” Seiji said. His eyes were twinkling again and he had regained some of his playful manner.

“Uncle,” Jin replied. Her lips quirked to the side, like a cat’s. “I’m your only niece.”

* * *

As soon as everyone was brought to the house, Seiji treated them all to a dinner of _liang pi_ or cold skin noodles, rice cakes, deep-fried bean curd and thin slices of marinated fish. He brought out some baijiu and a pot of cold tea for anyone who didn’t feel like drinking alcohol. As he served the food, Zuko was struck by his surprisingly polished table manners. Despite his rough appearance, he ate in slow, measured bites, rather like his sister Sachi and before eating, he dipped his chopsticks in his cup of tea, showing some measure of refinement.

To keep Jin’s mother from worrying, Seiji sent a letter to his sister, telling her that he had gone to treat Jin for dinner. Seiji also asked Zuko if he wanted to send a letter to his uncle. Zuko gratefully accepted and hastily scribbled a note to Uncle Iroh, making some vague excuse about his absence from work.

After the initial shock, Seiji regained much of his good cheer and in fact, even seemed impressed when Jet recounted the story of how Jin and the rest of her friends broke everyone out. His eyes glowed with wild excitement when Jet got to the part about the building being set on fire.

“I never set fire to a building. But I did blow one up,” he said, smiling fondly. “I was only fifteen years old back then.”

Zuko and Jet looked at him in awe while everyone else looked vaguely concerned at the positively gleeful expression on his face.

“Uncle used to be in Si Hai Bang,” Jin said, by way of explanation.

“Oh. I thought so! You have a bit of an Eastern twang when you speak,” Yutang said. “That and of course…the tattoos.”

“What does being from the East have to do with being part of Si Hai Bang?” Jet asked, curious.

“The gang was started by Easterners. That’s why they’re called Si Hai Bang, in reference to the “four seas” surrounding the Eastern Province,” Jin explained. She nudged her uncle by the elbow. “Mom used to say that uncle was a nightmare when he was a teenager.”

That didn’t seem to bother Seiji at all.

“What better time to be a nightmare than when you’re a teenager?” He leaned back, sighing dreamily. “Ah. The wild days of my youth.”

Once dinner was finished, everyone said their goodbyes. The boy was very sad and wouldn’t stop crying. He stubbornly clung to Zuko and would only leave after Seiji firmly dragged him off. Because the boy still refused to talk, Seiji agreed to keep watch over him until his parents or relatives could be located. Zuko was slightly concerned by this—if his suspicions were correct, then the boy would be better off with him and Uncle Iroh. Still, he had to acquiesce to leaving him in Seiji’s care as he would be safer in the Outer Ring, where the Dai Li’s presence was apparently not as pervasive. Parting was also very hard for Jet and Jin. Jet was upset that he couldn’t even say goodbye to Smellerbee and Longshot and Jin was feeling emotional at the thought that this might be their last meeting. Zuko didn’t care one way or the other and was just glad that he no longer had to deal with Jet’s antics.

Jet and Jin hugged each other deeply.

“Don’t miss me too much,” Jet said, reaching out to pinch Jin’s cheeks. They were grinning at each other in a way that made Zuko think it was some sort of inside joke.

Zuko felt annoyed although he couldn’t imagine why.

“I’ll try my best,” she said. She was already breaking out into tears and was having trouble controlling her voice.

“Don’t worry. I just know we will see each other again someday,” Jet whispered.

Jet then turned to Zuko and the two merely nodded to each other.

“See you around, jerk,” Jet said.

“Try not to be as much of an ass when you do,” Zuko shot back.

They grinned at each other, feeling no true malice against the other for the first time.

There was another round of kowtows from the other escapees and Zuko himself gave a very deep bow of gratitude towards Seiji. Then, Seiji led Zuko and Jin to the train station and waited with them for the train to arrive.

By the time they managed to clamber on to the train, they were both deeply exhausted. Years of Avatar-hunting had made Zuko more resistant to stress and he was able to stay awake. Jin, on the other hand, was completely knackered. The moment she sat down, her head drooped against Zuko’s shoulder and she fell asleep. Zuko stared at her and the awkward way her body was positioned. If she kept up like that, she would probably wake up with a stiff neck.

Sighing to himself, Zuko placed an arm around her so that she would be more comfortable and they stayed like that for the whole train ride. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * Term of address for an older sister's husband.
> 
> Anyway, this chapter ends the "Rescue Jet" arc. As you can see, Seiji is a disaster uncle who's down to do cover-ups for his niece haha Don't be sad about Jet, this might not be the last time you'll see him hehehe Because this month is a bit heavy for me school-wise, I'll be taking a hiatus for the entire month of February. Updates will resume on March and instead of being weekly, it will be every other week. So, God-willing that nothing else time-consuming comes my way for the rest of the months, from March onwards, updates will be every Saturday of the first and third week of the month.
> 
> Comments are always appreciated and see you next month!


End file.
